What Role Can South-South Cooperation Play in Post COVID-19 Recovery?

By Matteo MarchisioBEIJING, Mar 2 2021 (IPS) Five years ago, at the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations, world leaders adopted the ambitious Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The Agenda was to be accomplished through the achievement of 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030: eradicating poverty, ending hunger, addressing climate change – just to name a few. Matteo MarchisioThe COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 suddenly disrupted advancement toward meeting this goal, in many cases rolling back years of progress. The World Bank, for example, estimated that COVID-19 has pushed an additional 88 to 115 million people into extreme poverty last year, bringing back the total number of poor in the world to the level of 2014-2015. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, the pandemic may have added between 83 and 132 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world in 2020. It is as if COVID-19 had suddenly brought the world back to 2005, eroding in a few months 15 years of progress in food security. The measures implemented to contain the COVID-19 spread (i.e. lockdown and movement restrictions) affected the entire food systems, disrupting production, processing, marketing and distribution. Rural communities and smallholder farmers– particularly in developing countries – were the most affected by the implementation of such measures; their livelihoods primarily depend on agricultural production and sa...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Economy & Trade Food & Agriculture Food Security and Nutrition Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Poverty & SDGs South-South TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news