The Future of Food Security in the Wake of a Global Pandemic

As part of the project with USAID, the Pardee center has worked on a research report studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 on food security. The research shows that the world is set to make gradual progress on lowering extreme poverty, undernourishment and child stunting, but that COVID-19 result in slowing down of progress out to 2040. The Pardee Center was also responsible for synthetizing the results in a series of policy briefs, a communication piece, presentation materials, and an integrated report.

This report investigates the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on food security to the year 2040 at world and world-region levels. Using the International Futures (IFs) tool, analysis found that the world is set to make progress in reducing extreme poverty, undernourishment and child stunting between today and 2040. The primary effects of COVID-19 on food security operate through reduced economic size, demand side reductions and lower economic food access. This work serves as an important resource for policy development to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on long-term food security.