South Asia

The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a serious blow to the strong economic and social performance that South Asia had maintained for two decades. As the regional economy struggled to recover, the Russia-Ukraine war and natural disasters, including devastating floods in Pakistan in 2022, led to further disruptions. Spikes in global food and energy prices and the tightening of global financial conditions led to contractions in South Asian trade. A combination of measures are required to tackle food system crises in the region, including well-targeted safety nets, promotion of intraregional trade, improvements in smallholder productivity and resilience to climate change, and systematic crisis preparedness.