The number of people who lived in extreme poverty by income in Mexico it went from 21 million people in 2018 to 33 million in June 2020, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, he estimated Hector Nájera, researcher associated with the University Program for Development Studies of the ONE.
This rebound was mainly due to confinement policies, which resulted in a drop in people’s income, said the academic at the round table “Food poverty, is the true effect of pandemic in Mexico? ”, organized by the Asea Foundation.
The exercise for July and August is not yet available, in which a reduction in the extreme poverty due to income due to the economic reopening. But, in any case, who is going to have the last word is going to be he Coneval in 2021, when the poverty results in the country are published, the specialist added.
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Extreme income poverty implies poverty fundamentally food, which does not necessarily mean malnutrition but malnutritionNajera said.
In the last five years, hunger has increased in the world, said Lina Pohl, FAO representative in Mexico. In 2019, it was declared that 690 million people in the world were starving; that is, they did not consume enough calories to lead an active and healthy life. That number was 10 million more than in 2018 and 60 million more than five years ago.
According to estimates from the FAO, he Covid-19 could cause, by the end of 2020, an increase of 130 million in the number of people affected by the chronic hunger all over the world.
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Hunger in Latin America It affected 47.7 million people in 2019 and it is expected that by 2030 it will reach 67 million people, about 20 million more than in 2019. This, without considering the impact of Covid-19.
In this sense, Lina Pohl warned that it is necessary to transform food systems with a view to reducing the cost of nutritious foods and increasing the affordability of healthy diets.
In addition to investing throughout the entire chain of food supply, in the food environment and in the political economy that make up trade, public spending and investment policies. As well as reducing the factors that increase the costs of production, storage, transportation, distribution and marketing of food, added the specialist.
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