The best way to address crises within the coronavirus crisis

The widespread impact of COVID-19 has had unpredictable ripple effects that already are capitalizing on systemic weaknesses and interdependent global supply chains. On top of the pandemic, the World Food Program (WFP) predicts food insecurity to double, with more than a quarter-billion people going hungry by the end of 2020. Amidst the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, this mounting food insecurity is yet another crisis layered on top of other crises challenging today’s world. 

When crises come — one after another — needs expand beyond basics such as food and water. This is the time to take careful inventory of the secondary impacts of the crises, from tracing eco-friendly pesticide supply chain shortages needed for the plague of locusts in East Africa, to psychosocial needs and addressing increases in gender-based violence happening at home. With complex challenges, there’s been no better time to emphasize the humanitarian sector’s need to lean on local staff and partners. When the world is locked down, local staff and partners need to be supported, and for real-time information and response. 

Creative resilience is key for both COVID-19 response and the follow-on secondary impacts — and we’ve seen this localized and partnership approach be most effective. For example, when the nearly 13 million residents in the densely-populated slums of Manila in the Philippines were put on coronavirus lockdown, it was local community groups who took charge to ensure food access. A group of mothers — whose families live in government housing on a reclaimed mangrove swamp — calls themselves the Rainbow Savings Group. Because they have no land for farming, Food for the Hungry (FH) staff were able to connect them with an urban gardening seminar and gave them soil. Soon the Rainbow Savings Group mothers were growing nutritious gardens in old pots, tin cans and boxes that they attached to the walls of their housing units and stuffed into nooks and crannies of available ground. This adaptive gardening is providing healthy food to children and neighbors in need, even as families adhere to strict quarantine rules. 

Humanitarian aid organizations also are having to work creatively, taking on more of an advising than implementing role. Like many international NGOs, FH has local staff around the world, now “in the field” via phone and text. We’re working with religious leaders to share COVID-19 prevention messaging with congregations via radio announcements, PA systems, phone calls and text messages. When false rumors about coronavirus symptoms are being spread, we’re disseminating accurate health and hygiene information using graphics from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. In Peru, where there’s no clean water for many impoverished hillside communities, local staff advised communities on how to petition the municipal government to get water trucked in — and succeeded. 

While the value of mass food distribution is not to be understated in a crisis, under such challenging circumstances, supporting local staff and partners makes an important difference. In addition to providing hands-on service delivery for organizations such as the WFP and USAID, trained local staff and partners lead by example when it comes to unfamiliar behaviors such as social distancing and consistent hand-washing. 

Perhaps most importantly, local staff and partners are the eyes and ears who find the vulnerable in need of help. Thinking of other crises — among them polio, HIV and Ebola — people often do not want to reveal that they suffer from “diseases of shame.” Highly contagious COVID-19 may fall into this category, and trusted relationships are critical to countering the narrative of shame and mitigating the spread of the disease. 

When we eventually make the transition to a post-pandemic world, we’ll also find a silver lining of opportunity to do what good development should do in the first place: empower and fund local, community-based staff and partners to be primary agents of change. This shift allows for the smaller actions to make a big difference — not only now, but also into the future.

When food is scarce and floods, locusts and a global pandemic descend, the U.S. in particular cannot afford to bring about another plague — one of isolationism. Our leaders in Washington must pay close attention to a recent poll from the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition that shows 96 percent of Americans think it is important for the U.S. to work with other countries to fight diseases that could spread globally. Seventy-nine percent call this “very important,” and 4-in-5 American voters believe assistance to other countries with weaker health systems makes America safer.

The U.S. needs to be intentional in its response efforts for all of the reasons above, now and into the future. Some have suggested a pandemic and famine response that takes proven elements from PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS), PMI (malaria), Feed the Future and other successful bilateral programs. Such an effort must also protect and continue decades of investments and progress in global health and development, as it ensures the novel coronavirus doesn’t continue to circle the globe. 

Our leaders would be wise to listen to the American people, not withdraw from foreign assistance, and offer our capable compassion.

Peter Howard is the chief international operations officer at Food for the Hungry, an international relief and development organization in over 20 countries worldwide.