Impact of COVID-19 on People’s Livelihoods, their Health, and Our Food Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and therefore the world of labor. 

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The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of many people are in danger of falling into extreme poverty, while the amount of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the top of the year.

Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are in danger of losing their livelihoods. Informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable because the bulk lack social protection and access to quality health care and have lost access to productive assets. 

Without the means to earn an income during lockdowns, many are unable to feed themselves and their families. For most, no income means no food, or, at best, less food and fewer nutritious food. 

The pandemic has been affecting the whole food system and has laid bare its fragility. Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures are preventing farmers from accessing markets, including for purchasing inputs and selling their produce, and agricultural workers from harvesting crops, thus disrupting domestic and international food supply chains and reducing access to healthy, safe and diverse diets. 

The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed many livelihoods in danger . As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and die, the food security and nutrition of many women and men are under threat, with those in low-income countries, particularly the foremost marginalized populations, which include small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, being hardest hit.

Millions of agricultural workers – waged and self-employed – while feeding the planet , regularly face high levels of working poverty, malnutrition and poor health, and suffer from a scarcity of safety and labour protection also as other sorts of abuse. With low and irregular incomes and a scarcity of social support, many of them are spurred to continue working, often in unsafe conditions, thus exposing themselves and their families to additional risks. 

Further, when experiencing income losses, they’ll resort to negative coping strategies, like distress sale of assets, predatory loans or child labour. Migrant agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable, because they face risks in their transport, working and living conditions and struggle to access support measures put in situ by governments. 

Guaranteeing the security and health of all agri-food workers – from primary producers to those involved in food processing, transport and retail, including street food vendors – also as better incomes and protection, are going to be critical to saving lives and protecting public health, people’s livelihoods and food security.

In the COVID-19 crisis food security, public health, and employment and labour issues, especially workers’ health and safety, converge. Adhering to workplace safety and health practices and ensuring access to decent work and therefore the protection of labour rights altogether industries are going to be crucial in addressing the human dimension of the crisis. 

Immediate and purposeful action to save lots of lives and livelihoods should include extending social protection towards universal health coverage and income support for those most affected. These include workers within the informal economy and in poorly protected and low-paid jobs, including youth, older workers, and migrants. Particular attention must be paid to things of girls , who are over-represented in low-paid jobs and care roles.