Nigeria’s Food Insecurity and Its Implications on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 Amidst the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Food plays a core role in providing health, social and economic benefits as well as preventing diseases. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976 acknowledged the need for hunger to be eliminated through an international cooperation, hence the international cooperation on the inclusion of Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which was later replaced by Goal 2 (zero hunger) in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs). Although, there was a drop in the number of undernourished people globally, nevertheless, malnutrition and hunger still lingers as a barrier to sustainable development in many countries and in Nigeria, specifically. This paper therefore sought to examine how the food insecurity being experienced in Nigeria impacts on the progress and attainment of the second SDG (zero hunger) in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. It underscored that although, before the outbreak of the pandemic, the nation was already plagued by food insecurity due to factors such as climate change and security threats, to mention a few, however, with the pandemic the levels of food insecurity were exacerbated. The paper concluded that while food insecurity was being experienced before the pandemic with 9.1% of the Nigerian population severely food insecure between 2017 and 2019, nevertheless, the outbreak of the disease exacerbated the insecurity people faced in accessing food items, leading to 58% of Nigerian households to experience acute food insecurity. It also stressed that this analysis will have a negative implication on the progress being made on SDG2 and the attainment of the Goal by 2030. The paper recommended among others that, there is need for public-private partnership throughout the agricultural and food value chain, in order to make food available, accessible and affordable to people through the development of an inclusive data on agricultural and food programs, which at the long run translates to ending hunger and beef-up progress of the SDG 2 through food security.