Preparing for the Food and Nutrition Security Impacts of COVID-19

Participants harkened from youth and indigenous communities, academia and think tanks, government and multilateral agencies, parliaments and civil society organizations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.

The purpose of the discussion was to harvest stakeholder perspectives on the key challenges and opportunities for protecting people from food and nutrition security in the context of COVID-19, and for building more resilient and inclusive food systems through efforts to recover from the pandemic.

Several points of commonality between speakers included:

• COVID-19 is a health crisis, with deep social and economic impacts.
• COVID-19’s impacts on food and nutrition security observe no borders.
• Poor and vulnerable people will suffer first, and worst.
• Women and girls are on the front lines of this crisis.
• Solutions must begin at the local-level, and be informed by stakeholders from civil society, academia and affected communities.
• Policy responses must be underpinned by evidence, and integrate climate considerations throughout.
• Canada can play a leading role in protecting food systems from COVID impacts, and helping communities around the world recover better, greener and more inclusively.