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= Food supply chain = [I]mport/export restrictions, as well as challenges to transport key food items between rural to urban areas and access processing units and markets, would affect both producers and consumers. Such disruptions of the food supply chain are likely to have significant adverse repercussions, particularly for the most vulnerable population groups, including informal labourers, the urban poor, displaced populations and others, relying on markets to meet their food needs.

One of the immediate priorities will be to ensure that critical ongoing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups is not hindered and is adapted to potential COVID-19 impacts. [FAO recommends ] establishing corridors to ensure the flow of food between rural, urban and peri-urban areas. Furthermore, [according to FAO], support to livelihood diversification and home-based food production could increase local food availability and income opportunities, to offset disruptions to the food supply chain.

Local purchases of food and agricultural inputs for humanitarian purposes should be exempt from restrictions, and the establishment of efficient and effective humanitarian food reserves should be considered [, FAO suggests].

Food security
The impact [of COVID-19] on food security may lead vulnerable household to resort to negative coping strategies, which will have lasting effects on their lives and livelihoods, including reduction in number of meals, increased school drop-out rate, decreased means to cover health expenditures, gender-based violence, selling of productive assets, etc. The situation is of particular concern for [internally displaced persons] and refugees, whose vulnerabilities are already high. Increased food prices, disruption of markets and employment opportunities in agriculture, and limited humanitarian assistance would have a particularly important impact on them.

Reducing the impact of the pandemic on acute food insecurity cannot be done in isolation and requires the involvement of actors well beyond the agriculture and food security sectors. [FAO recommends that] governments should be encouraged to adopt policies and make investments to support agricultural production and maintain critical supply chains, whilst ensuring the protection of the most vulnerable, including through the expansion of safety nets. Moreover, [FAO recommends that] governments should ensure coordination in the response across sectors, mainstreaming health and safety measures. [According to FAO], strong partnerships are needed between national institutions, United Nations organizations, non-governmental organization (NGOs), farmers’ groups and all other relevant stakeholders.

Given the unprecedented nature of the crisis, creating a better understanding of the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and related vulnerabilities is of paramount importance and urgency. In food crisis contexts, [FAO recommends that] data collection and data sharing modalities should be adapted to ensure continuous monitoring of changes in food security levels, food and agricultural supply chains, food production and availability, and food and agricultural input prices, to anticipate supply shocks and identify possible risks that may threaten food systems.

Food crisis countries that rely heavily on food imports (i.e. Yemen) or on exports of natural resources (i.e. Nigeria or South Sudan) to meet their food consumption requirements, may experience a further deterioration of food security.

Food crisis contexts
A major compounding factor for food crisis contexts is that the pandemic is likely to have significant repercussions on the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Lessons from previous crises demonstrate that actions to safeguard livelihoods, food production and food access will likely have a significant return on investment, in terms of saving lives and livelihoods and reinforcing local food systems in this critical time.

[In food crisis contexts,] if food supply chains become disrupted and livelihoods untenable, vulnerable populations are more likely to move in search of assistance – especially in fragile contexts and remote areas where movement restrictions may be much more difficult to control. Such movements would further threaten to spread the virus, heighten social tensions, provoke displacement, and undermine livelihoods.