When the first Covid-19 case was detected in Botswana in 2020, resulting in a five-week lockdown across the country, *Thato and his wife *Tlhalefo were forced out of their jobs. They struggled to buy basics such as food and to pay rent and utilities.
“It did not take long for our savings to run out,” said *Thato, the 37-year-old father of two daughters, who worked as a street hawker while his wife worked as a cleaner on a part time basis.
“Things became so hard from then on and we have often struggled to put food on the table because it seems food prices keep increasing,” he says. These are not isolated incidents. Across Botswana, stories of individuals or families going hungry and running out of food are becoming all too familiar.
Food price inflation in Botswana is straining household budgets with poor households bearing the brunt. Typical household income levels fell since the start of the pandemic which means poorer households now find themselves in a weaker financial position. As the prices of food continue to increase, scores of households suffering a fall in income have resorted to piecemeal strategies in order to survive the pandemic. However, there is now great concern that the economic impact of the pandemic will be felt for years.
*Thato and his wife *Tlhalefo say the price hikes have forced them to cut down heavily on their expenditures. They have now resorted to buying home brands which are relatively cheaper.
Well before the arrival of the coronavirus, Botswana was already recording increasing cases of malnutrition which were attributed to shortage of food commodities and increase in prices of cereals. A multi sectoral report noted that “export restrictions and tariffs which have been imposed by some countries in order to curb the spread of the corona virus could result in food shortages. Coronavirus will result in insufficient supply of food required by beneficiaries in Botswana”.
Botswana’s 48-day lockdown not only deepened pre-existing entrenched inequalities, but to a large extent exposed women’s social and economic vulnerability which are in turn increasing the impact of the pandemic. With over 65 percent of Botswana’s working population being in the informal sector, public health experts say the pandemic is likely to create more problems since the informal sector is manned by more women than men.
Speaking to this publication, a Dietician, Lebogang Kopela said the fact that women in the informal sector earn less money, have insecure jobs and had most of their savings decimated by the pandemic means female headed households are likely to experience an increase in relative poverty.
“Failure to address the plague of low-paid, insecure work and to assist our most vulnerable and marginalised groups now means Covid-19 is likely to worsen poverty which ultimately affects family dynamics since the country has a high number of single mothers who are the bread winners,” she says.
But as the pain – which is disproportionately felt by poorer households in Botswana who have seen a bigger slice of their income go towards buying food remains – there is also another problem that policymakers have to contend with. The increase in extreme poverty owing to rising food prices is very much likely to lead to higher malnutrition because poorer people eat less nutritious and healthy food.
“An increase in the price of staple foods can lead to a substantial reduction in energy intake. Furthermore, the prevalence of stunting, underweight and other forms of malnutrition may rise, slowing human development and economic growth,” says Kopela.
As recommendations, Kopela notes that there is need for Botswana to start looking into nutrition-sensitive agriculture where emphasis is placed on agricultural investment in nutrient-dense foods rather than staple foods. “This will help the citizens to have access to affordable nutritious foods,” she says.
Kopela also says the rising food prices plus the covid-19 pandemic will result in most households changing their eating or dietary patterns by buying generic store brands. Generic store brands usually do not use quality ingredients.
“Poor quality food means that the consumer in ingesting food which has poor nutritive value,” says Kopela, cautioning that rising food prices pose a serious threat to food security at both household and country level.
A 2020 analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlights that majority of Batswana above the international poverty line of $1.90 purchasing power parity (PPP) per person per day cannot afford a healthy or nutritious diet. The analysis which was done pre-Covid settles the fact that the problem of poor nutrition in Botswana is essentially on account of the unaffordability of good diets, and not on account of lack of information on nutrition.
The 2020 State of Food Security and nutrition in the World states that 64.5 percent of Batswana cannot afford a healthy diet. Furthermore, the report highlights that 32.8 percent of household income is channelled towards food expenditure. And while Covid-19 pandemic may be far from over, it is increasingly becoming clearer that the pandemic is expected to pose nutritional risks to Botswana in the short and long term. Prior to the pandemic, Botswana was already struggling with a double burden of malnutrition extremes. Various global fora such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and SADC Secretariat’s Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) Programme have it on good record that the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) in Botswana is pegged at 22.5%.
But until price rises abate and the financial pressure is lifted from poor and struggling households, *Thato and his wife *Tlhalefo say they will deal with each day’s problems as they come instead of worrying about the future.
