Discussion - What happens to the 3rd world when the U.S., China, and the Euro Zone shut down?

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-04/30/c_139021577.htm


COVID-19 deals blow to over 2 mln Bangladesh garment workers as int'l brands cancel orders
Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-30 19:36:12|Editor: huaxia
by Naim-Ul-Karim

DHAKA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has come as a big blow to the Bangladesh's millions of garment workers as international brands have cancelled orders worth 3.18 billion U.S. dollars, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

Bangladesh has raised the issue of cancellation of orders by the international buyers days after thousands of the country's readymade garment or RMG factories resumed operations amid experts' warnings of a potential new surge in COVID-19 infections.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen raised the issue on Wednesday while Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands Sigrid Kaag called him to talk about the impact of COVID-19 and discuss a way forward, Foreign Ministry spokesman Md Tohidul Islam said here Thursday...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com...9-pandemic/3815418-5538276-vs2b9tz/index.html

Food security worries most Kenyans during Covid-19 pandemic
Thursday, April 30, 2020 10:00
By ELVIS MBOYA


Approximately 1.3 million people in Kenya are currently facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.
In Africa, the level of concern over the coronavirus outbreak is high in all countries studied, with 72 percent overall reporting that they are ‘very concerned’ over Covid-19.
The economic effects of Covid-19 will be felt even harder in these emerging economies due to their reliance on informal trade and exports of commodities that are falling in value.

An estimated 86 percent of Kenyans are worried about their food security amid the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, a new poll has shown, signalling what they prefer to be the focus of the agencies involved in taming the effects of the disease.

A survey report released by GeoPoll on Monday shows that most Kenyans are already concerned about having enough to eat with an average 80 percent reported that within the seven days before the survey they had been worried about not having enough food to eat due to lack of money or other resources. This figure was highest in the DRC at 88 percent, Rwanda (87), Kenya (86), and Uganda (86).

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has already warned of an impending food crisis if actions are not taken to protect supply chains and distribute food to vulnerable populations.

Approximately 1.3 million people in Kenya are currently facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, representing a decline from the estimated 2.6 million people in need of assistance in late 2019, according to the Kenya food security steering group's 2019 short rains assessment. However, this figure is estimated to increase as the pandemic penetrates the country’s food baskets in rural areas.

The GeoPoll indicate that there is a significant shift in market operability, as most governments have employed stricter preventive measures such as social distancing, hand washing, wearing face masks, and hand sanitisers, failure, some markets have faced partial or total shutdown denting food supply chains. Dust-to-dawn curfew too, though vital, has worsened the situation.

The study conducted in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in April, including Kenya indicate that only 20 percent overall said that all of the markets or stores where they usually purchase food are open, with the largest group, 36 percent, reporting that some markets are open...