Chapter One
Beyond the Pandemic
Transforming Food Systems after COVID-19
Johan Swinnen, John McDermott, and Sivan Yosef
with Special Section: Financing the Transformation to Healthy, Sustainable, and Equitable Food Systems
Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla, Johan Swinnen, and Rob Vos
The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the central role that food system transformation must play in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, and the need for innovative approaches to financing the transformation.
KEY FINDINGS
- Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, our food systems already faced serious challenges in achieving equitable access to healthy, nutritious food for all; environmental sustainability; and resilience to shocks. COVID-19 has put the world further behind in reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- COVID-19 caused widespread loss of livelihoods and incomes, threatening the food security, health, and nutrition of poor and marginalized people around the world. Countries implemented a variety of measures to mitigate these impacts, including expanded social protection; but some impacts will be long-lasting.
- Food system transformation must be pursued to regain this lost ground and achieve the SDGs by 2030.
- Yet the pandemic and associated policy responses exposed weaknesses and inequalities within food systems, including among different world regions, rural and urban communities, rich and poor populations, and disadvantaged groups such as women.
- Some food systems and sectors were more resilient than others, depending on their structure, governance, and roles of the public and private sector.
- 2020 offered lessons, innovations, and opportunities that can help make food systems more resilient to future shocks and more inclusive, efficient, sustainable, and healthy.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
- Seize the opportunities opened by the pandemic — including growing momentum and lessons learned — to transform food systems to be resilient, healthy, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive.
- Use global events planned for 2021 — including UNFSS, COP26, and the Nutrition for Growth Summit — to put food system transformation prominently on the development agenda.
- Increase resilience for all food system actors through actions that limit the frequency and severity of shocks, improve communities’ ability to anticipate shocks, and build capacity to absorb shocks. This will require better access to finance; flexible social safety nets; competitive markets and trade channels; and investment in rural services, infrastructure, and R&D for improving food production systems.
- Promote the expansion and flexibility of social protection policies to protect vulnerable populations in times of economic, health, or environmental crises.
- Improve access to infrastructure and markets, especially through provision of digital services for market and farming information, education, government interactions, financial transactions, and logistics to reduce inequality and facilitate resilience.
- Seek innovative means of financing food system transformation, including through policies influencing consumer spending and private sector expenditures and profits, support for impact investment, and repurposing of public funding.
Browse Chapters
Chapter One
Beyond the Pandemic
Chapter Two
Resilience
Chapter Three
Nutrition
Chapter Four
Natural Resources and Environment
Chapter Five
Toward Inclusive Food Systems
Chapter Six
Food Supply Chains
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