In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic provoked a global health crisis, with a significant impact on the existing burden of malnutrition. Now, many more children will face an unprecedented nutrition crisis and are at risk of death from preventable causes.
Taking necessary measures to tackle the secondary effects of COVID-19 on food security and malnutrition will require a rights-based approach, which should guide the UK Government’s current and future policies and programmes on nutrition.
This briefing outlines why it is important for the UK and other governments, to adopt a rights-based approach in their response to the food crisis within the context of COVID-19, and how they should use the right to adequate food and related rights as fundamental guidance for governments’ policies and programmes.