Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Burkina Faso

This paper investigates the implication of the COVID-19 pandemic on households food insecurity in Burkina Faso. We use data from the High Frequency Phone Survey collected from the period June 2020 to June 2021 by the World Bank in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics. To assess the persistence of food inadequacy, we estimate a dynamic linear probability model. Our results reveal that female and elderly household members were more likely to skip meals during the pandemic than their respective counterparts were. For households that skipped a meal due to the pandemic, the likelihood of facing food insecurity in the subsequent month increased by 37 per cent. Similarly, individuals who ran out of food in consecutive months were 0.28 times more likely to experience the same situation in the following month. While other shocks can cause food insecurity, the global health-related, economic, social, and information dimensions of the COVID-19 created a distinctive and multifaceted form of food shortage that sets it apart from many other types of shocks. These findings suggest the implementation of effective programmes to respond to shocks and the mitigation effects on the most disadvantged groups.