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Project

The impacts of COVID-19 responses on the political economy of African food systems (COVID-19-AFS)
 

Ghana
South Africa
Tanzania
Project ID
109580
Total Funding
CAD 725,600.00
IDRC Officer
Annie Wesley
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
12 months

Programs and partnerships

Agriculture and Food Security

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Ruth Hall
South Africa

Summary

IDRC’s response to the COVID-19 crisis includes a rapid response to the food and nutritional security crisis associated with COVID-19. This response mechanism supports the development of new, short-term activities that supplement existing projects.Read more

IDRC’s response to the COVID-19 crisis includes a rapid response to the food and nutritional security crisis associated with COVID-19. This response mechanism supports the development of new, short-term activities that supplement existing projects. The goals are to document the impact of the pandemic (and control measures) on local food systems and food security; to document planned and spontaneous responses to the emerging crisis; and to strengthen responses to the current crisis. The rapid response mechanism also supports the development of new projects that document and analyze the efficacy of those responses. This will help low- and middle-income countries respond more efficiently to subsequent waves of the epidemic and to potential future shocks.

This project aims to implement action-oriented research on the impacts of COVID-19 interventions on the functioning and structure of food systems in Tanzania, Ghana, and South Africa. These three countries cover a spectrum of different economies, food systems, and COVID-19 responses. The research team will collect and analyze information across formal and informal food systems using a mixed-methods approach. By mapping food flows, key informant interviews, ethnographic field and online research, and collecting voice notes and video material, the project will gain a real-time understanding of the direct impacts of regulatory responses on production systems, value chains, and formal and informal markets by focusing on women and marginalized actors. The findings will be packaged and disseminated for policy, advocacy, and academic purposes.

Research outputs

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Report
Language:

English

Summary

Political economy research looks at how politics and economics shape one other: how power and resources are arranged among people, states and markets within an overall economic system. Where declining public investment in food and agriculture increases private sector control, governance of the food system becomes a product of power, politics and socio-economic inequality. The research examines politics of the responses being shaped by the structures of the food system in three countries (Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa) during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is the content and nature of national regulatory responses to the pandemic and how have these changed over time?

Author(s)
African Food Systems
Report
Language:

English

Summary

The research interrogates how the functioning of the food system has changed under Covid-19, along with drivers of these changes, such as regulatory measures. It also aims to identify stakeholders that have benefited and those who have lost out, as well as the kinds of emerging impacts which are being experienced. The study interprets shifts in food flows from a political economy perspective. The workshops include consideration of changes that have affected different forms of social differentiation and related power dynamics, across factors including but not limited to: Social class; Race and perhaps ethnicity; Gender relations; Corporate versus informal and small business; Geography.

Author(s)
African Food Systems
Report
Language:

English

Summary

The workshop reflected on findings of researchers and civil-society activists from Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa. Key aspects of national food systems were neglected under Covid-19, particularly those where women, marginalised populations, and pastoralists were active participants. The pandemic and the responses to it exposed vulnerabilities to which little attention had previously been paid. In West Africa, food systems were vulnerable to shocks including in relation to climate change. Many challenges were experienced in cross-border trade. However, there was strong resilience at the local level during the crisis, while significant risks were related to extended supply chains.

Author(s)
African Food Systems
Report
Language:

English

Summary

The argument underpinning a political economy approach is that relationships between politics and economics are not neutral, value-free, or coincidental. The project’s consideration of economic outcomes of Covid-19 regulations aims to better understand the politics behind them, and how regulations have shaped distribution of benefits and risks at the local level. Another aspect of the political economy analysis may include how discourses over the availability of certain produce has been managed in the governance of the crisis. For instance, disruptions caused by lockdown restrictions have made it difficult for small-scale informal operators to acquire permits to continue their businesses as usual.

Author(s)
Hall, Ruth
Report
Language:

English

Summary

The project considers causes of changes in the food system under Covid-19, focusing on issues such as contracts, payment terms, credit arrangements, forms of trust and collective action in the food systems in Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa. It includes such factors as differences in food systems: the extent of informality and the size of the informal agri-food system which varies across the three countries; the nature of land inputs and produce markets. Differences in Covid-19 experiences also include the severity of infections, the different kinds of containment measures implemented, and the extent of mitigation measures which have been introduced.

Author(s)
Hall, Ruth
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