South Africa’s multiple vulnerabilities, food security and livelihood options in the COVID-19 new order: An annotation

Ernest N. Khalema,Hosea O. Patrick,Oluremi A. Abiolu,Enioluwa J. Ijatuyi,Rhoda T. Abiolu

doi:10.4102/td.v17i1.1037

Abstract

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and its crippling effects exacerbate many people’s vulnerability to food security across the world, including Africa. This article offers an explorative discourse on the implication of COVID-19 pandemic for South Africa’s food and livelihood security in the face of climate change. Using a scoping desktop review method, the article aims to provoke research and policy action and discourse on the subject matter. The article explores pre-and post-COVID-19 vulnerabilities in South Africa. It acknowledges the impact of climate change on food security and the situation of food security in South Africa pre-and post-COVID-19 pandemic. It then provides policy recommendations and expected outcomes to reconfigure the agricultural sector in the new sociopolitical and economic order necessitated by the pandemic. The article argues that reducing the stress posed by COVID-19 will require collaborative efforts and systemic thinking by stakeholders across all quarters. This will proffer workable solutions to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food and livelihood options of rural dwellers in South Africa and their interconnectedness with the impact of climate change.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious policy concerns for food and livelihood security globally as other human security sectors, the economy and public health.[1]
The rationale was to explore the degree of vulnerability the COVID-19 pandemic posed and still poses on food and livelihood security in South Africa, given other multiplier effects such as climate change, poverty and weak institutional and household coping mechanisms
The article acknowledged the impact of climate change on food security and the situation of food security in South Africa pre-and post-COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious policy concerns for food and livelihood security globally as other human security sectors, the economy and public health.[1]. An average of 4.75 million South African households live below the poverty line, with over 14 million susceptible to food insecurity.[34] There has been reportedly a gradual rise in the proportion of people living below the food poverty line of R441 per person per month since 2011.35 The Statistics South Africa[36] report indicated a 2.8 million increase from 2011 to 2015 alone.[36] These are largely because of low wages, unemployment and high dependency ratio, which are seemingly more prevalent in rural areas The combination of these multiple stress and threat multipliers in the event of the emerging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa and South Africa begs for the need for policy and research considerations. As of January 2021, over 9 months since the global outbreak of COVID-19, in what we can safely refer to as ‘post-COVID-19 premier hit (as a result of efforts at making vaccines available worldwide)’, many are still battling with the immediate aftermath of the pandemic such as recession and job losses among others

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