CIHEAM Press Review

The number of Syrians who lack access to sufficient food has reached a record 12.4 million, or nearly 60 per cent of the population, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Wednesday, citing “alarming” new national data.  Economic crisis, job losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and soaring food prices have added to the plight […]

The covid-19 pandemic has brought no end of comparisons to Spanish flu, which raced around the globe in 1918. For Lebanon, though, that decade’s defining event was not flu but famine: years of hunger that killed half the population during the first world war. History feels newly relevant as the country tips into depression and food prices soar. Trapped at home these past months, often in their ancestral villages, some Lebanese have tried their hand at growing their own food. On a rooftop in Beirut, tomato vines crawl towards the sky. 

COVID-19 has hit hard, fast, and everywhere. It is, above all, a public health crisis, but other linked crises are emerging, and none is more urgent than the pending hunger crisis. A global stimulus package is needed to protect the millions of people in low and middle-income countries who have lost their income.

There are over 10 million informal workers like Marei in Egypt, according to government estimates. While many of them continue to work because they cannot afford to stay home, the pandemic has undercut their livelihoods nonetheless. 

Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), called on its 177 Member States to help the Fund reach its goal of doubling its impact on the lives of the world’s most marginalized people by 2030.  
“With extreme weather, conflict, fragility and migration threatening our food systems, we need to invest more in the rural people who grow our food,” said Houngbo. “We have just 10 years to reach our global targets of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. That means stepping up our investments where poverty and hunger is concentrated – in rural areas.”

Over the last year, Covid-19 has undone the economic, health and food security of millions, pushing as many as 150 million people into extreme poverty. While the health and economic impacts of the pandemic have been devastating, the rise in hunger has been one of its most tangible symptoms.

The covid-19 pandemic has brought no end of comparisons to Spanish flu, which raced around the globe in 1918. For Lebanon, though, that decade’s defining event was not flu but famine: years of hunger that killed half the population during the first world war. History feels newly relevant as the country tips into depression and food prices soar. Trapped at home these past months, often in their ancestral villages, some Lebanese have tried their hand at growing their own food. On a rooftop in Beirut, tomato vines crawl towards the sky. A designer spends weekdays behind a computer and weekends plucking broad beans in the mountains. Young people swap tips on what to grow and when.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Anger over a failing economy and unaffordable food has pushed protesters into the streets despite the coronavirus.

Two weeks ago, it seemed every conversation in Lebanon was about keeping safe from the virus. The bustling streets of Beirut were quiet; everyone wore masks and gloves and glared at anyone who coughed in public. The smell of hand sanitizers filled elevators.

As a vegetable street vendor who travels some 90 kilometres from Monufia to Cairo every day, in the back of a crowded truck with 15 others, Samira Outt, 46, has been flouting the coronavirus social-distancing guidelines that demand people stay home as much as possible.
Like other millions of Egyptians, for Outt, a widowed mother with four children, staying home is not an option. If she did, the breadwinner would be unable to provide food, clothes and shelter for her family. 

Freshwater protected areas can boost fish stocks to pull communities out of poverty

A study recently published in the journal Ecological Modeling by Lee Hannah, senior scientist for climate change biology at Conservation International, and co-authors, found that establishing protected areas within freshwater fisheries can actually help pull local communities out of the poverty cycle.

Report by Adelphi thinktank warns terrorist groups will exploit natural disasters and water and food shortages

Increasing rates of diabetes & heart disease are an inevitable result of a broken food & health system