Safeguarding people’s health has been the global priority amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In Bhutan, emerging lessons show how nutrition and other aspects of health are intricately related to the management of food security during the current crisis, and beyond. The country’s leaders have used moral suasion alongside policy measures to demonstrate that good nutrition need not be a luxury.
Attribution: Om Bhandari, “Safeguarding Food Self-Sufficiency in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons from Bhutan,”
ORF Issue Brief No. 429, December 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
INTRODUCTION
Global trade was already facing disruptions before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to weakened growth and heightened US-China tensions; agriculture commodities were being disproportionately affected.