The COVID-19 pandemic has put the global food system under sustained pressure andhas triggered various policy responses to manage both supply and demand. While thepolicy responses of key global food producers have been publicised and their implicationswell documented, there has been a dearth of information on sub-Saharan Africa. Yetfood insecurity is relatively high in the region, and there is considerable reliance on theworld market for food. This policy insight looks at how sub-Saharan African countries haveresponded to the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate its impacts, and explores the effects ofpolicy responses on the continent’s food system. Overall, sub-Saharan African countrieshave defaulted to standard interventionist policies. The first of these are market and tradepolicies aimed at either augmenting the domestic food supply by releasing grain via FoodReserve Agency (FRA) operations or restricting/facilitating regional cross-border trade,depending on the perceived market supply. The second are food production policies thatare mainly targeted at smallholder farmers through input subsidies. Except for SouthAfrica and Namibia, most of sub-Saharan Africa does not have the fiscal capacity to providesufficient social protection and income support to augment food demand and reducepoverty. Instead, these consumers are experiencing diminished incomes and higher foodprices. With COVID-19 negatively impacting regional food markets to differing extents, thevulnerability of food systems and the ineffectiveness of policy responses have become moreapparent. Therefore, food systems on the continent will need to evolve and become moreresilient to future shocks, and policy has to become more agile and responsive to addressmultiple challenges.