COVID-19 income and price shocks effect on household food access in Malawi

Abstract

Abstract The paper contributes to the scarce literature on the negative effect of coronavirus 2019-induced income and food price shocks on household economic access to food, focusing on Malawi during the first two pandemic waves and using a country representative sample. We find that household income reduction, as explained by income source shocks and health mitigation measures, has a wave-specific and persistent effect on ordinal categories of food security perception. Our evidence supports the implementation and monthly scaling-up of nutrition-sensitive social protection programmes and health measures at the household level to address these adverse effects.