UN agencies warn economic impact of Covid-19

PESHAWAR: The economic impact of Covid-19 on the world’s most populous region is threatening to further undermine efforts to improve diets and nutrition of nearly two billion people in Asia and the Pacific who were already unable to afford healthy diets prior to the pandemic.

This has been revealed in a new report published by four specialised agencies of the United Nations, said a press release.

The launch event had keynote speakers: Dr Sania Nishtar, special assistant to the prime minister of Pakistan on poverty alleviation and social safety nets, Emorn Udomkesmalee, adjunct associate professor in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University and Chair of the IFPRI Board of Trustees, Senley Levi Filualea, minister of agriculture and Livestock, Solomon Islands. Minister for National Food Security and Research, Pakistan also participated in the event.

The report, “Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2020: Maternal and Child Diets at the Heart of Improving Nutrition” found that 1.9 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in the region, even before the COVID-19 outbreak and the damage it has since caused to economies and individual livelihoods.

The report was published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.