A recent study published in the journal Science Advances concluded that the pandemic has significantly impacted developing countries around the world, hitting low income families the hardest. COVID-19 has effectively eroded the standard of living for people in these countries according to the study.

It meant rising food insecurity for low and middle-income countries like Kenya, Nepal, Colombia, Ghana, Rwanda, and other regions.

Thousands of households in those areas reported a significant drop in their earnings, and reduced access to the market and other services. For many they were simply unable to meet their basic needs in just trying to survive and all of a sudden found it very difficult to find and secure basic necessities for the family.

One investigation into food insecurity in Kenya and Uganda found that food insecurity increased between 38 to 44 percent. Many individuals also started consuming less fruits, at least 30 percent reduction according to their study.

Over 40 percent of households in some of those regions studied had reduced their meal sizes to try and get by, or they went without eating some meals altogether.

Some farmers in those regions also faced significant losses when the government announced sudden restrictions on travel and curfews.

Growing Domestic Markets

When everything shut down and they all of a sudden faced a significant drop in demand for the product, it highlighted a problem that many started to pay attention to. They started seeing the opportunity for local markets and regional markets to thrive, with a shift in approach, bringing a new opportunity for local growth that could be working along with exports. By fostering both it would simply be providing more opportunity for trade that could benefit more small farmers.

“The evidence we’ve collected shows dire economic consequences, including rising food insecurity and falling income, which, if left unchecked, could thrust millions of vulnerable households into poverty.” - M. Mobarak, professor of economics and faculty director of the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE),

Overall, many people saw reduced access to markets, when the government turned to heavily restrict daily life. And that had a drastic impact on billions, especially children in these developing countries and low income families. They also faced reduced access to health services along the way as well.

Researchers say that the data is important to collect and analyze in order to get a better understanding of how the effects of the crisis impacted people around the world. This further understanding of those effects might also eventually go on to influence policy decisions going forward.

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