The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious threats to food security and nutrition for the poorest people in the Kyrgyz Republic, especially those living in urban areas. New report of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) written in conjunction with the national community says.
Analysis of poverty, food security and nutrition in the context of COVID-19 and the role of social protection in Kyrgyzstan is based on country-wide data collected before and after the pandemic.
Comparison shows that drop in income not only led to a decrease in demand for food, but also caused shifts in the range of products consumed.
Families eat less nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables and animal products, as well as higher-calorie foods like bread and sugar.
«The large-scale economic crisis caused by the pandemic has led to an increase in the number of poor and unemployed people in the Kyrgyz Republic. To cope, families reported using various strategies that negatively impacted their nutrition, health and productivity and it would be difficult to change them in the future that continues the cycle of poverty and vulnerability,» the study says.
In addition to strategies for coping with ’stress’ (for example, a cash loan to meet food needs), more households had to use ’crisis’ and ’emergency’ strategies such as sale of assets, cutting spending on basic non-food items, sale of property and application for humanitarian aid.
The number of households using these strategies increased from 12 percent in 2020 to 36 percent in 2021.
This leads to low ability to cope with future shocks, reduction in the current and future productivity and threats to livelihoods.
«This important analysis demonstrates an alarming impact of the pandemic on the food and nutrition security of the population, and that food insecurity and malnutrition are closely linked to poverty. Critical actions should be taken now to strengthen the government’s approach to social protection and help families and the republic fully recover from the socio-economic impact of COVID-19,» Michael Huggins, WFP Interim Country Director for the Kyrgyz Republic, said.
Recommendations in the report include focusing on income-generating activities and poverty reduction programs to make people more resilient to shocks, strengthening intersectoral links between social safety nets and food systems, promoting healthy and diversified diets, and strengthening social benefit structures so that no one was left without support.
