This policy brief from Ceres2030 finds that 'if governments provide USD 10 billion for social protection programmes in Africa and South Asia, with at least USD 5 billion coming from donor governments as aid, then we could prevent a COVID-19 food security and nutrition crisis.' Social protection programmes are needed in the short-term to address the current crisis and into the longer-term to provide a safety net and boost incomes for the most vulnerable. Using artificial intelligence to analyse data - including the UN’s 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report - combined with economic modelling, the brief finds that an additional 95 million people could be affected by hunger over the course of 2020, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, taking us back to absolute levels not seen in almost two decades. Though primarily a call for public sector funding, if USD 5 billion needs to be sourced directly from LMICs, the private sector has an important role to play.
Learn more about Ceres2030's work on COVID-19.
Ceres2030 is a cutting-edge research project on the public investments needed to end hunger sustainably, led by Cornell University, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
