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Elba and his wife, model and activist Sabrina
Dhowre Elba, gave their support to a fund set up by the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to help
stop economic shocks caused by COVID-19 triggering a global food
crisis.
The couple, who were also designated on Monday as goodwill
ambassadors for IFAD, contracted the virus themselves in March
although reportedly only suffered mild symptoms.
"The world's advanced economies are in the midst of this
pandemic right now and, of course, they must do everything they
can to help their own people," said Elba, 47, in a statement.
"But the fact is, global action is also a matter of
self-interest. As long as the pandemic is still raging anywhere,
it will pose a threat everywhere," he added, urging donors to
ramp up financial support to keep rural food systems operating.
IFAD, a U.N. agency that promotes rural development, said it
would put $40 million into the new fund to counter the effects
of the pandemic on food production, market access and employment
in developing countries.
It also aims to raise at least $200 million more from
governments, foundations and the private sector.
In December Elba and his wife visited rural Sierra Leone, where
IFAD provided financial services to communities hit by Ebola.
Since the coronavirus began to spread in developing nations,
IFAD has been finding ways to help rural families - many of them
poor farmers - deal with the deadly disease's ripple effects.
In eastern Senegal, where a curfew and market closures make it
hard to sell produce or livestock, the agency is supporting cash
transfers and subsidies via smartphones, and distributing seeds
and fertilisers ahead of the planting season.
In India's Odisha state, it has worked with local authorities to
get watermelons transported to markets, avoiding the loss of 600
tonnes of fruit due to COVID-19 restrictions.
IFAD President Gilbert F. Houngbo, who was raised in rural Togo,
West Africa, said farmers were worried about losing their income
during the pandemic as lockdown measures in many places could
stop them selling crops and buying seeds and fertilisers.
He warned if this happened, progress in the fight against
poverty could be upended for the first time in three decades.
"What we are talking about is the risk of a health crisis
creating a food crisis," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"(But) I think we have to go even beyond the risk of food
insecurity and look at it as we, as a global community, going
backwards in the fight against poverty."
(Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Belinda
Goldsmith. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of
people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.
Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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