COVID-19: Potential Impact on the World’s Poorest People

Currently, “821 million people regularly go to bed hungry.”  Due to the economic and logistical consequences of COVID-19, “the depth and breadth of hunger will increase worldwide.” Describes countries at risk and the number of people “chronically food insecure” and “acutely food insecure,” e.g. Nigeria: 25.6m and 5.3m respectively, Ethiopia 21.6m and 8.1m, and Bangladesh 24.2m and 1.3m. Also see “135 Million Face Starvation: That Could Double. Pandemic Moves Globe Toward Unparalleled Crisis of Hunger” (New York Times, April 23, 2020, p.1), citing the chief economist at the World Food Programme, warning that 265 million people can be at the “brink of starvation by year’s end” due to disruption of food supply chains, loss of income for countless millions, the historic locust plague in Northeast Africa, etc.