The impact of COVID-19 on diet quality, food security and nutrition in low and middle income countries: a systematic review of the evidence

Background & Aims: The current global pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and measures adopted to reduce its spread, threaten the nutritional status of populations in Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Documenting how the COVID-19 affects diets, nutrition and food security can help generating evidence-informed recommendations for mitigating interventions and policies. Methods: We carried out a systematic literature review. A structure search strategy was applied in MEDLINE (Pubmed®), EMBASE®, Scopus® and Web of Science®. Grey literature was retrieved by screening a pre-set list of institutions involved in monitoring the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on nutrition and food security. The first search was done on 20th August 2020, and updated in mid-November 2020 and mid-January 2021. All research steps were described as recommended in the PRISMA statement. Results: Out of the 2085 references identified, thirty-five primary studies were included. In spite of their heterogeneity, studies converge to demonstrate a detrimental effect of COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures on diet quality and food insecurity. One of the major direct effects of COVID-19 on food and nutrition outcomes has been through its impact on employment, income generating activities and associated purchasing power. Other channels of impact, such as physical access, availability and affordability of food provided a heterogeneous picture and were assessed via binary and often simplistic questions. The impacts of COVID-19 manifested with various intensity degrees, duration and in different forms. Factors contributing to these variations between and within countries were: 1) timing, duration and stringency of national COVID-19 restriction measures and policies to mitigate their adverse impacts; 2) context specific food value chain responses to domestic and international containment measures; 3) differentiated impacts of restriction measures on different groups, along lines of gender, age, socio-economic status and employment conditions. Dietary changes and food insecurity manifested various intensity degrees, duration and in different forms between and within countries. Shorter value chains and traditional smallholder farms were somewhat more resilient in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the impact of the pandemic has been particularly adverse on women, individuals with a low socio-economic status, informal workers and young adults that relied on daily wages. Finally, there were heterogeneous government responses to curb the virus and to mitigate the damaging effects of the pandemic. It has been demonstrated that existing and well-functioning social protection programmes and public distribution of food can buffer the adverse effects on food insecurity. But social safety nets cannot be effective on their own and there is a need for broader food systems interventions and investments to support sustainable and inclusive food systems to holistic achieve food and nutrition security. Conclusion: In conclusion, the current economic and heath crisis impact diet quality and food security, and this raises concerns about long term impacts on access to and affordability of nutrient-rich, healthy diets and their health implications. Women and individuals with a low socio-economic are the most at risk of food insecurity. Social safety nets can be effective to protect them and must be urgently implemented. We advocate for improved data collection to identify vulnerable groups and measure how interventions are successful in protecting them

Feminist approaches to transforming food systems: a roadmap towards a socially just transition

Transforming food systems to make them healthier, more sustainable and inclusive is closely interconnected with the goals and ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and leaving no one behind. The importance of making food systems more equitable and sustainable has become critical and is a key driver behind the movement to promote food systems transformation. By shedding light on the existing structural weaknesses and inequalities inherent in existing food systems, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made this transformation an ever-more pressing priority. Although different readings of the crisis and proposals for solutions exist (eg Clapp et al, 2020), all stakeholders agree that action is urgently needed. An equitable and sustainable transformation can only happen by prioritising the long-standing feminist demands, underpinned by calls for the realisation of women’s rights and socio-environmental justice. The paper presents an initial list of cross-disciplinary methodological implications for research and action, and questions that might help us to advance the trajectory to achieve inclusive, healthier and more sustainable food systems

What matters in physical adolescent activity – quality or quantity?

Science Animated What matters in physical adolescent activity – quality or quantity? These are the findings from a mix-methods study in rural Telangana. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Social Media ──────────────────────────── https://twitter.com/gcrf?lang=en https://twitter.com/UniRdg_IFNH https://twitter.com/LancetChildAdol https://twitter.com/UniRdg_SAPD https://twitter.com/ANH_Academy https://twitter.com/NIRDPR_India https://twitter.com/UniofGreenwich https://twitter.com/NRInstitute ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Science Animated ──────────────────────────── http://www.sciani.com/ https://twitter.com/Sci_Ani https://www.facebook.com/scianimation/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #PhysicalAdolescent #Telangana #Study ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Gender, time-Use, and energy expenditures in rural communities in India and Nepal

Women’s patterns of time-use, which proxy the work burdens associated with productive and reproductive activities, are an important determinant of nutrition and well-being in LMICs. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how patterns of time-use translate into patterns of physical activity and energy expenditure, particularly in rural areas where seasonal agricultural labour plays such an important role. We address this gap by integrating energy expenditure data derived from wearable tri-axial accelerometers with time-use data from conventional recall-based surveys. Using datasets from agricultural households in four rural communities in India and Nepal, our results show that there are significant gender differences in the patterns of time-use and energy expenditure. Men and women participate equally in productive work, however women shoulder most of the additional reproductive work burdens in rural households at the expense of leisure opportunities. Our results provide insights into women’s responses to opportunities for productive work and highlight the nature of trade-offs they fac

Depleted by Debt: “Green” Microfinance, Over-Indebtedness, and Social Reproduction in Climate-Vulnerable Cambodia

The operations of microfinance are exalted in mainstream development thinking as a key means of supporting smallholder farmers facing growing crises of agricultural productivity in the context of daily, ongoing, and often slow-onset climate disasters. Microfinance products and services are claimed to enhance coping and adaptative capacity by facilitating both risk recovery and reduction. Challenging the status quo, this paper brings together original and mixed-method data collected between 2020 and 2022 in Cambodia to critically examine the “green finance” agenda by highlighting the ways in which microfinance contributes to reproducing and exacerbating climate precarity and harm for many. We evidence how credit-taking can lead to more dangerous and individualised efforts to cope with, and adapt to, existing conditions at home, often at the cost of emotional and bodily depletion. By doing so, we contribute to answering calls for connecting literatures and thinking on social reproduction, depletion, and climate change adaptation

Trapped in the service of debt. How the burdens of repayment are fuelling the health poverty trap in rural Cambodia

Over-indebtedness is fuelling, not alleviating, the health poverty trap in Cambodia. It is associated with increased short-term health sacrifices made to repay debt, and physical, mental, and social suffering that is endured in the longer term

Depleted by debt: ‘green’ microfinance, over-indebtedness, and social reproduction in climate-vulnerable Cambodia

The operations of microfinance are exalted in mainstream development thinking as a key means of supporting smallholder farmers facing growing crises of agricultural productivity in the context of daily, ongoing, and often slow-onset climate disasters. Enhancing coping and adaptative capacity, the provision of microfinance products and services would facilitate adaptation by facilitating both risk recovery and reduction. Bringing together original and mixed-method data collected between 2020-2022 in Cambodia, this paper critically examines this ‘green microfinance’ narrative by highlighting the ways in which microfinance contributes to reproducing and exacerbating climate precarity and harm for many. We evidence how credit-taking can lead to more dangerous and individualised efforts to cope with, and adapt to, existing conditions at home, often at the cost of emotional and bodily depletion. By doing so, we contribute to answering calls for connecting the literatures on social reproduction, depletion, and climate change adaptation

Microfinance, over-indebtedness and climate adaptation: new evidence from rural Cambodia

Microfinance loans are leading to an over-indebtedness emergency that undermines borrowers’ long-term coping and adaptive capacity in a changing climate