March 2020 – In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic, the United Nations launched the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP) on March 25th, 2020. The GHRP seeks to respond to the direct public health and immediate humanitarian consequences of the pandemic. The GHRP’s three strategic priorities: (1) containing the spread of the pandemic; (2) decreasing the deterioration of human assets and rights, social cohesion and livelihoods; and (3) protecting, assisting and advocating for refugees, internally displaced people, migrants and host communities particularly vulnerable to the pandemic. Project activities include: (1) working with governments to scale-up social protection systems, direct cash injections where feasible, and cash+ schemes; (2) providing time-critical inputs, technical advice, support to livelihood diversification and home production, support to production, transformation, marketing and exchange of food products for internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees, support food production in camps, and scale-up cash-based programming; (3) incentivizing continued production, and strengthening agricultural cooperatives to maintain negotiation power for farmers; (4) working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to share messages and raise awareness of COVID-19 among food chain actors; and (5) improved understanding of the potential impacts of COVID-19 on food security and the food supply chains, at country and global level. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) continues to play a critical coordination role through co-leadership of the global and national Food Security Cluster, and providing technical support for food security information and analyses, needs and impact assessments, early warning and monitoring systems, data collection and surveys, etc.
