Food insecurity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in four African countries

Food Insecurity: Is Leagility a Potential Remedy?

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ukraine-Russian conflict, both significant geo-political and socio-economic shocks to the global food system and food insecurity has risen across the world. One potential remedy to reduce the level of food insecurity is to move from a lean just-in-time food system to one where there is more resilience through greater agility both in routine supply operations and also in the event of an emergency situation. The aim of this critical perspectives paper was to firstly reflect on the concepts of lean, agility, and 'leagility'. Then, this study considered the ability of individual organisations and the whole food system to be resilient, adaptive, enable the elimination of waste, reduce inefficiency, and assure the consistent delivery to market requirements in terms of both volume, safety, and quality. Promoting the concept of leagility together with advocating resilient, sustainable practices that embed buffer and adaptive capacity, this paper positions that increasing digitalisation and improving business continuity planning can ensure effective operationalisation of supply chains under both normal and crisis situations, ultimately reducing the risk of food insecurity at personal, household, and community levels.

The evolution of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel survey data

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 vaccination efforts are lagging in Sub-Saharan Africa, as just over 20 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is considered important as a prerequisite for widespread vaccine take-up. Here, we study the dynamics of vaccine acceptance, its correlates, and reasons for hesitancy over time, drawing on two years of panel survey data.

METHODS

In this observational study, we use multiple rounds of data from national High Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) in five countries in East and West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda), covering a period between 2020 and 2022. The surveys are cross-country comparable and draw their samples from nationally representative sampling frames. Based on this data source, the study presents population-weighted means and performs multivariate regression analysis.

RESULTS

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was high throughout the study period (68% to 98%). However, acceptance levels were lower in 2022 than in 2020 in three countries (Burkina Faso, Malawi, Nigeria), and higher in one country (Uganda). Moreover, individuals are observed to change their stated vaccine attitudes between survey rounds, to a limited extent in some countries (Ethiopia) and more frequently in others (Burkina Faso, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda). Vaccine hesitancy is higher in richer households, and those residing in urban areas; among women and those better educated. Hesitancy is lower in larger households and among heads of the household. The main reasons for hesitancy are concerns about side effects of the vaccine, its safety and efficacy, as well as assessments of COVID-19 risk, though these reasons fluctuate over time.

CONCLUSIONS

Reported COVID-19 vaccine acceptance levels remain far above vaccination rates in the study countries, suggesting that vaccine hesitancy is not the primary obstacle to reaching greater vaccine coverage, which may instead be related to access and delivery barriers as well as supply shortages. Nevertheless, vaccine attitudes appear malleable so that continued efforts are needed to retain high levels of vaccine acceptance.

COVID-19 mobility restrictions and stay-at-home behaviour in 2020 were associated with higher retail food prices worldwide

COVID-19 policy responses have included mobility restrictions, and many people have chosen to stay at home to avoid exposure. These actions have ambiguous impacts on food prices, lowering demand for food away from home and perishables, while increasing supply costs for items where workers are most affected by the pandemic. We use evidence from 160 countries to identify the net direction and magnitude of association between countries' real cost of all food and mobility restriction stringency. We investigate the deviation of each month's price level in 2020 from that month's average price level during the previous three years and find that an increase in mobility restriction stringency from no restrictions to most restrictive is associated with an increase in the real cost of all food of more than one percentage point across all models. We then examine the relationship between retail food price levels by food group and stay-at-home behaviour around markets in 36 countries and find positive associations for non-perishables, dairy and eggs.

Food Insecurity Is Associated with Dietary Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2019-2020

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic and has affected people's dietary behaviors, including food insecurity. This study aimed to ascertain whether COVID-19 may alter the prevalence of food insecurity, and if such food security status may be associated with dietary intake among Koreans. The general characteristics, dietary intake and food security status data in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VIII (2019~2020) were analyzed. The prevalence of food insecurity and food group and nutrient consumption by food security status were analyzed before (2019) and after the start of the pandemic (2020). Findings suggested 4.3% of Koreans experienced food insecurity during the first year of the pandemic, yet it did not differ from that in the year before the pandemic. Before COVID-19, there was no significant difference in food group or nutrition consumption by food security status. However, in 2020, the fruit and vitamin C intake of the food-insecure group was significantly lower than that of the food-secure group. Additionally, the food-insecure group's ratio of subjects who did not meet the recommended level of fruits and the vitamin was higher compared to that of the secure group. In conclusion, COVID-19 did not affect food insecurity status, but did have a negative influence on dietary intake for food-insecure Koreans.

Has COVID-19 accelerated the E-commerce of agricultural products? Evidence from sales data of E-stores in China

We investigated the operation of e-stores specializing in food and agricultural products before and after the occurrence of COVID-19. A difference-in-difference (DID) method was employed to estimate the relationship between COVID-19 and the online sales of agricultural products using data from 164,002 food and agricultural product e-commerce stores (in short, e-stores) of two major Chinese e-commerce platforms in 120 prefectural-level or above cities. The results demonstrated that while COVID-19 and its control measures were associated with a substantial growth in the monthly sales of food and agricultural product e-stores, the growth varies considerably across store scales and with the type of food and agricultural product in which an e-store is specialized. Micro stores experienced much larger growth and played a more important role in maintaining the resilience of the supply chain of food and agricultural products than larger-scale stores; stores selling more essential food items experienced larger growth than those selling leisure food items. A mechanism analysis further revealed that the growth of online sales of agricultural products was mainly driven by changes in consumers' food purchase behaviors from offline channels to online channels (i.e., an increase in the number of online customer orders and price per online order) starting with the onset of COVID-19. The results of this paper underscore the importance of e-commerce in maintaining the resilience of the agri-food supply chain and call for public support of the development of micro- and small-scale e-stores to meet consumers' increasing demand for food supply from those types of stores during the pandemic period.

The COVID-19 pandemic and food security in low- and middle-income countries: a review

We review findings from the emerging microeconomic literature on observed changes in food insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we focus our review on studies in low- and middle-income countries that include household survey data measuring food insecurity collected both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We first focus on several studies—seven from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and one from India—that estimate immediate changes in food insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Next, we review subsequent analysis studying longer term changes in food insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This review, therefore, complements existing macroeconomic projections of food insecurity based on expected changes in income and prices.