Table 2.

Principles of risk management strategy discussed in the farming system and/or the supply chain literature, and are of potential relevance for local food system resilience in the context of the COVID-19 crisis

Principle	Definition	References	Potential positive effect in the case of COVID-19 (to be empirically tested)
Diversification	The ability of actors of the food system to changes the set of products (crops, raw or processed products, etc.) that they offer to the market, or the actors from whom they obtain their inputs/food supplies.	Ramasesh et al. 1991; Backus et al. 1997; Arslan et al. 2015; Tukamuhabwa et al. 2015; Cunningham and Jenal 2016; Barot et al. 2017; Reed et al. 2017	Diversification could reduce the level of disruption in supply chains faced by producers and other actors along the food supply chain (processors, retailers, sellers, etc.), thus mitigating the negative effects that these disruptions have on their operations and incomes.
Substitution	The degree to which the different food system actors can have access to input products that are similar or comparable (in terms of price, quality, or characteristics e.g. nutrition value)	Ganesh et al. 2008; Goyal and Netessine 2011;	Substitution would reduce the disruption effects on supply of certain inputs in food processing, or on the availability of food items for consumers, thus mitigating the negative effects that those disruptions have on food system operations and consumers’ food and nutrition.
Entrepreneurship	Refers to actors’ behaviour when they proactively adapt, take calculated risks, and innovate in response to stimuli from both internal and external environments.	Iza et al. 2019; Kangogo et al. 2020	Entrepreneurship would improve actors’ ability to anticipate and respond to shocks or stressors. In the case of COVID-19, example would include those retailers or vendors who rapidly established safe food delivery services and in so doing reduced the risk of infection amongst some at-risk populations (e.g. elderly).
Cooperation	Cooperation is an outcome of social capital; it refers to situations in which food system actors (within and across socioeconomic groups: producers, traders, street vendors, etc.) seek out win-win outcomes from working together.	Rose 2014; Downing et al. 2018	Cooperation within or between groups of food system actors would reduce the negative effects of mobility restrictions imposed by local or national authorities. For instance better cooperation between farmers and workers could help reduce the drop in labour supply.
Competition	Competition is expected to stimulate actors of the food system to develop new products, services and technologies, which would give consumers greater selection and better products.	Gorodnichenko and Roland 2012; Downing et al. 2018	Competition between actors within the same groups (e.g. retailers) would stimulate the supply of better quality or more affordable food products, thus mitigating the negative effects of food supply chain disruptions or loss of income on consumers’ food security.
Connectivity/ farmer–buyer relationships	Connectivity refers to the intensity and nature of the relationships (vertical, horizontal, positive, negative) between different actors within and across socio-economic groups (farmers, traders, processors, etc.)	Frank and Penrose-Buckley 2012; Goerner et al. 2009; Downing et al. 2018; Kangogo et al. 2020;	Like diversification or substitution, connectivity would reduce the disruptions faced by producers and other actors (processors, retailers, sellers, etc.) along the food supply chain, thus mitigating the negative effects that these disruptions have on their operations and incomes.
(Index-based) insurance	Index-based insurance refers to insurance contracts used (so far) essentially in farming systems where payouts are based on an index (e.g., rainfall, yield or vegetation levels) that is correlated with agricultural losses.	Bertram-Huemmer and Kraehnert 2015; Hill et al. 2017	Index-based insurance could be used to protect food system actors from specific shocks affecting their businesses, thus reducing their propensity to engage in negative responses. In the case of COVID-19 access to these index-based insurance could have reduced the risk of, e.g., vendors having to break authorities’ order and continue operating in crowded informal markets in order to secure some minimum income.
Inclusiveness (economic or gender inclusion)	Inclusive value chains usually place emphasis on identifying ways in which low-income actors (male or female) can be “better” incorporated into existing or new value chains or can extract greater value from the chain.	Goerner et al. 2009; Helmsing and Vellema 2010; Kilelu et al. 2017; Downing et al. 2018	Making local food systems more inclusive would mean offering food supply informal and micro-enterprises more opportunities to build their resilience capacities (better networking, better access to infrastructures better access to information, better protection/insurance, etc.). In the case of COVID-19, those various capacities would have helped those small actors to be better prepared (sometimes simply by having more savings) to face the COVID-19 disruptions.
Cash transfer	Cash transfers refers to social protection interventions whereby a direct payment of money (cash or electronic transfer) is made to an eligible person (i.e. one that satisfies a certain combination of criteria).	Gilligan et al. 2009; HLPE 2012; Béné et al. 2012a, 2012b; Davies et al. 2013; Soares et al. 2016; Béné et al. 2018; Asfaw and Davis 2018	Distribution of cash during the weeks/months during which households are forced to stop their economic activities due to lockdown is one of the most effective way to reduce the negative effect of COVID-19 crisis on the millions of actors (consumers, farmers, vendors, workers, etc.) who have lost their jobs temporarily or are facing a reduction in their incomes.
Psychosocial factors and subjective resilience	Psychosocial factors such as risk-perception, self-efficacy, aspiration, or perseverance are recognized to contribute to people’s construct of subjective resilience and influence their choice of responses in the face of adverse events	Bernard and Seyoum Taffesse 2014; Jahan and Wahab 2015; Béné et al. 2019a	Boosting the self-confidence, self-efficacy and aspiration of people has been shown to have positive effect on their ability to engaging in constructive responses when faced with adversity. Implementing interventions that improve the perception that actors have about themselves and their capacities to deal with hardship (self-efficacy) is something that government and development agencies should envisage to strengthen the resilience of local food systems.