Major news sites like the New York Times have recently reported that significant new famines may be happening imminently due to the pandemic’s ongoing economic disruptions. Is anyone in EA (or EA-adjacent circles) looking at whether this might be a high-impact opportunity to do good? If so, what have they concluded?
Background: I’m aware of the fact that generally famines across the world have been largely political for a few decades now, and I’m also aware that some have been ongoing for a while. My question pertains to the possible new (and probably short-term) famines that COVID-19 may be causing, since those may be noticeably more tractable than longstanding (entrenched) famine-like conditions caused by more overtly political factors.
The Food Systems Handbook was started at the beginning of the pandemic as an EA aligned organization (branching off of ALLFED). Not to speak too much for the org, but roughy its initial focus was collating case studies, new articles, and other useful resources about the emerging (pandemic-induced) food crisis, targeting decision makers. Now much of the focus is investigating future drivers of food insecurity (i.e. various aspects of climate change, trade restrictions, conflict, etc.) and doing lit reviews and talking with experts to see what policies they can advocate for to most effectively reduce future levels of malnutrition. There was a post about the ensuing humanitarian emergency from about a year ago, and here’s a post about the FSH specifically.
givedirectly has been running an african covid-19 relief fund.