Around 267 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) suffer from food insecurity. This means that 40% of the population lacks physical or economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their daily needs and lead a healthy life (FAO, 2022). But the problem doesn’t end there, as 8.6%, 56 million inhabitants, experience hunger in its raw form, meaning they don’t have sufficient food consumption to cover their caloric requirements.
It is crucial that we reflect on this immense problem. Our planet, with its natural resources (soil, water, air, biodiversity, etc.), provides a fundamental service for our survival: FOOD. Therefore, the indiscriminate use of natural resources poses a direct threat to the food security of the global population. Additionally, the indiscriminate use of natural resources, through deforestation, air pollution, production based on the use of agrochemicals, etc., accelerates climate change, which, in turn, reduces the potential for food production in many areas of LAC, leading to agricultural losses, increased instability in food supply, and the rise of plant pests and animal diseases, among other issues.
When discussing food security, we must not forget the four dimensions around which this concept revolves: the availability of food, which can be generated through national production or international trade; access, for which the population needs sufficient economic and physical resources to acquire them; utilization, meaning the utilization a person makes of food through nutrient acquisition and food safety; and stability in the availability and access to food, regardless of economic or climatic fluctuations.
While it is true that the region was the only one in the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by halving the number of malnourished people between 1990 and 2015, the trend has reversed since then, with a significant increase in the population experiencing hunger. Moreover, in ALC, hunger and food insecurity grew more than in other regions of the world during the period from 2019 to 2021.
Concerning access to healthy and nutritious diets, ALC faces a worrying situation. ALC is the region in the world with the highest cost to access a healthy diet; nearly US$4 per person per day. This results in 131 million people, 22% of the population, being unable to afford access to a healthy diet. Additionally, 11% of the children suffer from stunted growth, and 24% of adults are obese.
What has happened for us to reach this situation? While the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have increased poverty rates, heightened inequality, and caused inflationary pressures through increased prices of food, fossil fuels, and fertilizers, the rise in food insecurity has been ongoing since 2015 with little attention.
How to tackle the issue of food security in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Each of the dimensions mentioned above poses a genuine challenge for the region. What responses do we propose from the IDB to address each of these challenges?
- Increase food availability: Facilitate the trade flows of nutritious foods, adapt agricultural policies to increase the availability of nutritious and healthy foods. Invest in resilient infrastructure and agricultural research, encourage the adoption of new technologies by small and medium-sized farmers, and reduce food waste. Key to this is for countries to analyze their subsidy schemes in the sector and redirect resources towards public goods and the adoption of climate-smart technologies.
- Increase access to food: Identify and protect the most vulnerable people to food insecurity, with a particular focus on women, children, minorities, migrants, and indigenous populations through unconditional cash transfer programs to alleviate short-term crises, as well as cash transfers conditioned on nutritional outcomes for children and adolescents. It is also advisable to improve the income of family farming and promote quality rural jobs by empowering women, youth, and ethnic minorities.
- Improve food utilization: Education for healthy eating plays an essential role. It is also fundamental to improve the availability of prenatal and infantile micronutrients, generate nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions that promote the production and consumption of nutritious foods, and strengthen the quality of food through food safety projects and interventions that allow adequate access to clean water and sanitation.
- Ensure stable availability and access to food: Policies are needed to generate food systems resilient to climate change and disasters caused by natural events. Additionally, promote shorter supply chains that encourage local production and consumption, and international trade that facilitates procedures for food transactions between countries, for example, through the coordination of sanitary and phytosanitary regulations and digital technologies.
Latin America and the Caribbean have the challenge of eliminating hunger by 2030. For this, it is essential to transform our food systems to make them more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient. At the IDB, we are promoting the series: Seeds for Food Security, which seeks to generate knowledge on this topic. For now, we leave you with this interesting publication summarizing the context of food security in the region. Stay connected for more information.
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Publication: Seeds for Food Security in Latin America and the Caribbean
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