Background
The war in Ukraine has major implications for food security and diets across the world, given both countries’ key roles in global food markets and Russia’s prominence in global energy trade. The resulting global food and economic crisis risks heightening inequalities and vulnerabilities in a world still confronting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, food system resilience is crucial to maintain or adapt its functions in the face of shocks, and ultimately for system sustainability. Through a series of key indicators, this brief describes how the food system has been affected by this ongoing crisis and provides an overview of its resilience and potential opportunities for building resilience further.
HOW HAS THE PHILIPPINES BEEN EXPOSED TO SHOCKS SINCE 2020?
In the last 3 years, the Philippines has faced shocks that have affected the food system and its resilience in various ways. Like the rest of the world, the Philippines was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. To minimize COVID-19 spread, the government rapidly implemented strict containment strategies such as school closures and restrictions of movements and public gatherings among others, which can impact various domains of the food system (e.g., supply chain, consumer environment, consumer behaviors). The country had one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdown (several levels of ‘community quarantine’) and state of emergency in response to the pandemic. In March 2020, Republic Act 11469 was signed into law, declaring a national health emergency across the Philippines due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation. The country also adopted supportive economic policies as part of their COVID-19 relief package, such as income support for the population (e.g., emergency subsidy program targeting families engaged in the informal sector, financial assistance to low-income households), but these ended in 2021 while the containment measures continued for a longer period (Figure 1).
The Philippines currency (Philippine Peso, PHP) exchange rate – relative to the US dollar (USD) – underwent a progressive depreciation from 2012 to 2018 (42 to 53 PHP per USD). Although the crisis did not seem to have noticeable impact, as the period 2018-2021 was marked by a slight appreciation of the PHP (53 to 49 PHP per USD), the PHP sustained a 10% depreciation in 2022 (from 49 to 54 PHP per USD) (Figure 2). The weakening of the PHP may have been a result of the volatility in global financial markets resulting from the war in Ukraine.
Besides shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Philippines is also prone to numerous climate-related hazards, such as typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions. As reported in a recent study, the country has been classified as the third most vulnerable country to climate change across 67 countries. The frequency and/or intensity of such extreme events may be increased by climate change, potentially exacerbating vulnerabilities and impacting on people’s food security . The country has been heavily affected by climate-related disasters from 2011 to 2014, mainly resulting from tropical storm and typhoons, but also from riverine floods (2012).
Between 2015 and 2019, although the country sustained several natural events, fewer people were affected. With regards to the current crisis period, a high number of people were affected by natural disasters in 2021 (11% of the population), primarily due to Typhoon Rai (Figure 3).