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COVID-19 L3 Emergency - External Situation Report #16, 12 November 2020

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Highlights

A toxic mix of conflict, economic decline, climate extremes and the socio-economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic are driving people into a deepening phase of extreme food insecurity, according to the Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Insecurity Hotspots report, published jointly by FAO and WFP. In the coming months, famine is a real risk in parts of four countries: Burkina Faso, (Northeast) Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. The socio-economic impact of the pandemic is proving to be more disastrous than the actual virus in many countries. In Latin America, hunger has quadrupled in countries WFP operates, and the region is experiencing the worst recession in 100 years.

WFP has begun to phase down its free-to-user cargo services due to improvements in commercial transport markets and revised pipeline figures demonstrating a lower quantity of response items requiring transport than first expected. Given the unpredictability of COVID-19 and its impacts, WFP stands ready to resume any discontinued services should the need arise and based on funding availability. WFP’s existing mechanisms to support and enable the humanitarian community through mandated services in-country such as the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) and the Logistics Cluster; as well as the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot network (UNHRD) and WFP’s bilateral service provision (BSP) offering will remain available as required.

WFP’s Cost of a Plate of Food report reflects underlying inequalities between people in developing and richer countries, worsened by COVID-19. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa feature heavily in the latest report, with 17 of the top 20 in the report drawn from this region.

As of end of October, WFP has confirmed US$ 275.5 million in financing sourced from International Financial Institutions (IFIs), as well as an additional US$ 117.5 million pending final approval by national governments. Compared to the US$ 21 million confirmed in 2019, these figures signify a substantial increase in WFP’s scale and scope of engagement with IFIs. Nearly half of financing sourced from IFIs in 2020 is linked to the COVID-19 response and recovery efforts.

The World Bank Board approved an envelope of US$ 12 billion for countries to finance the purchase and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments. This support will be available to IDA/IBRD eligible countries and will build on the COVID-19 emergency response programs already in place in 111 countries. The aim of the project is to support COVID-19 vaccination of 1 billion people globally.