The Effects of COVID-19 on Food Security in Urban and Rural Mali

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Responding to the call of the WHO, the government of Mali, along with many other governments worldwide, started to implement containment and mitigation measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. One year and half later, the pandemic continues to ravage populations worldwide, including in Mali. Beyond health effects, the pandemic has affected how Malians, in both rural and urban areas, eat, work, and live. Utilizing secondary data plus a nationally representative phone survey conducted by PRCI six months into the pandemic, we report on some of the effects of COVID-19 on food security in urban and rural Mali. This policy research note looks especially at food availability and accessibility through changes in the agricultural sector, employment/income, and food consumption. The PRCI survey in Mali was part of a multi-country study across African countries: Kenya, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, and Zambia (Maredia et. al., 2021). The same sampling and overall design methods were used in every country. What follows is a summary of those methods and is shared nearly in its entirety by all country policy research notes on this topic. Findings indicate that rural and urban populations have been similarly highly impacted by COVID-19, highlighting the integration of food and labor markets at a national scale. It is likely that the pandemic will be a lingering grave concern for some time in Mali and many other countries, based on the fact that the country has been through three waves of the pandemic, there is continuing emergence of new variants, and the pace of vaccination is slow. There is need for expanded social safety net programs to support affected households in both rural and urban areas. It is critical to prioritize mass vaccination of the population to facilitate faster return to normal participation in economic activities.