UN Goodwill Ambassadors Idris and Sabrina Elba launch appeal for International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD) $200 million coronavirus relief fund for rural communities

Actor, filmmaker and humanitarian Idris Elba and actress, model and activist Sabrina Dhowre Elba have launched a new global coronavirus relief fund on behalf of the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to prevent economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic from triggering a global hunger and food crisis.

With US$40 million in seed money from IFAD, the multi-donor COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility aims to raise at least an additional $200 million from governments, foundations and the private sector to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on rural small-scale farmers and producers.

The Facility seeks to help them continue to grow their crops, keep their businesses open and maintain access to financial services and markets as their countries go into lockdown and movements are restricted.

British actor Idris Elba and his wife, actress and model, Sabrina Dhowre Elba

The Facility is part of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for urgent and coordinated actions across the UN system in support of putting an end to the global pandemic and reducing its economic and social consequences.

IFAD has recently seen that food prices are already rising – even as productivity and household incomes are falling – in some countries affected by the pandemic.

In response, IFAD is already at work securing food supply chains in a number of countries by ensuring farmers can access seeds and other inputs; facilitating the purchase and storage of produce; and working with governments to keep transport routes open to farmers so they can sell their goods. It is hoped that these measures will help avert a potential food and hunger crisis – one that would have particularly harsh effects on vulnerable people in developing countries.

British actor Idris Elba

Most rural farmers depend on small family farms for their incomes and sustenance. Rural areas are home to nearly 80 per cent of the world's poorest people, as well as most of the world’s hungriest people. In the developing world, small-scale farmers, working on around 500 million small farms, produce half of the food calories consumed globally.

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Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)