More than 130 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have sufficient means to access a healthy diet, the region has the highest daily cost to achieve this type of diet and women are more affected by food insecurity than men compared to the rest of the world, it was reported this Wednesday through the Panorama of Food and Nutrition Security 2022 published by the United Nations.
The publication reveals that 131.3 million people in the region could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, which represents 22.5% of the regional population and means an increase of 8 million compared to 2019.
This increase is due to a higher average daily cost of this type of diet in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the rest of the world regions, reaching a value of US$4.23 in the Caribbean, followed by South America with 3.61 and Central America with 3.47, while the global average is 3.54 dollars.
“Latin America and the Caribbean is experiencing an unprecedented situation of food insecurity”Mario Lubetkin, deputy director general and regional representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), assured this afternoon during the presentation of the report “Regional panorama of food and nutrition security – Latin America and the Caribbean 2022. Towards a better affordability of healthy diets”.
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📢 Launch of the 📙 #Panorama2022 from #Food safety and nutrition of Latin America and the Caribbean carried out by @FAOAmericas @IFADespanol @opsom @uniceflac y @WFP_es
📺 Follow the live broadcast ➡️ https://t.co/LZohyDHQcl https://t.co/5sd4ccbWbI
— FAO Americas (@FAOAmericas) January 18, 2023
During the virtual presentation event, Lubetkin indicated that the region suffered a series of impacts such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the worsening of climate change and the “serious economic crisis” that make up a sum of elements to have a “sense of extreme concern.”
The report released this Thursday is a joint publication of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) together with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report also revealed that the increase in international food prices experienced since 2020, especially after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, and the rise in food inflation increased the difficulties for people to access a healthy diet.
“We are talking about the region of the world with the most expensive healthy diet, which particularly affects vulnerable populations -small farmers, rural women, and indigenous and Afro-descendant populations-, who allocate a greater percentage of their income to the purchase of food,” said Rossana Polastri, IFAD’s regional director.
Between 2019 and 2021the number of hungry people in the region increased by 13.2 million, reaching a total of 56.5 million hungry people in 2021a situation that was also affected by the impact of the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
“It is a paradox considering that Latin America and the Caribbean could produce food for 1.3 billion people, double the number that currently inhabit the region,” Lubetkin warned.
The increase in the number of hunger in the region is led by South America, where an additional 11 million people suffered from food insecurity. Over there, Hunger reached a prevalence of 7.9% in South America, 8.4% in Mesoamerica, and 16.4% in the Caribbean.
@RossanaPolastri in #Panorama2022: “Latin America holds the 1st place in the ranking of the most expensive healthy diets. This particularly affects the most vulnerable populations: small farmers, rural women, and indigenous and Afro-descendant populations”@IFADespanol pic.twitter.com/5SuITx4WF3
— FAO Americas (@FAOAmericas) January 18, 2023
On this point, Lubetkin indicated that the three great challenges that the report shows are the jump in the number of hunger and food insecurity, the higher cost of a healthy diet compared to other regions of the world and the sustained increase in overweight and obesity with impacts on health and the economy.
Other figures presented in the report indicated that the region registers an important evolution regarding the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years of age.
In 2020, this figure was 11.3% in Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 10 percentage points below the world average, but 3.9 million children up to 5 years of age are overweight.
On the other hand, the publication highlighted that, globally, the prevalence of food insecurity among women is higher than that of men, but in Latin America and the Caribbean the gap is even greater compared to other regions (4, 3 percentage points in the world in 2021, compared to 11.3 percentage points in the region).
“The demonstrated costs do not happen by chance: they arise from the absence or weakening of policies that are capable of effectively reshaping, strengthening and preserving food systems to promote health, equity and sustainability.”
spinal frame @opsom pic.twitter.com/aThgreXxPk
— FAO Americas (@FAOAmericas) January 18, 2023
In this sense, Polastri remarked during the event that “it is necessary to prioritize programs that promote gender equality, but not adding responsibility to their workload, which is already great, but rather rethinking the role of men to guarantee food security for families “.
The report also includes policy analysis and recommendations to improve the availability and affordability of nutritious food in order to support the most vulnerable people and low-income households that spend a greater proportion of their budget on food.