“This research study is among the few conducted in Africa to document the early impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on poor consumers in the urban slums. The study has used big data to highlight the impact of the pandemic and potential areas of intervention, thanks to our donor, the CGIAR Big Data Platform in Agriculture. Such cutting edge research is important for decision making by policy-makers and key for this case is improving food security and nutrition for the urban poor,” says Mark Lundy, Director of the Food Environment and Consumer Behavior Research Area at the Alliance, and a co-author of the research.
The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT remains committed to partnerships, with the team looking to not only launch the report but also to engage key policymakers in the Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Nutrition to guide policy formulation to help alleviate the economic and nutrition challenges posed by COVID-19.
As a member of the CGIAR family, the team is hopeful that the research findings will result in the development of evidence-based proposals that partners, funders, investors and policymakers can employ to address the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems.
“Rigorous research on COVID-19’s impact on food systems will be essential to helping us withstand this global crisis, accelerating recovery once the crisis ends, and building food systems of the future that perform better in addressing the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and the environment”, Juan Lucas Restrepo, the Director General of the Alliance, noted earlier in the year. This statement remains core to this research.
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