New UN report says that 56.5 million people suffered hunger in 2021, while 268 million faced food insecurity.
06/07/2022
Santiago, Chile – According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 (SOFI), an additional 4 million were thrust into hunger between 2020 and 2021 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This downturn comes after an already disheartening increase of 9 million people between 2019 and 2020, with the number of undernourished people reaching a total of 56,5 million in 2021, 8.6 percent of the population.
“The situation is extremely dire. In just two years, thirteen million people have fallen into hunger. And four out of ten people live with food insecurity, while we have yet to brace for the impacts of the current food crisis, including the war in Ukraine”, said FAO’s Regional Representative, Julio Berdegué.
The new UN report states that, of the total number of undernourished people in 2021 (823 million), more than half live in Asia, more than one-third in Africa, while Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for 7.4 percent of global undernourishment.
The SOFI 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 Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Hunger has nearly doubled in South America since 2015
According to the SOFI, the Caribbean presents the highest proportion of the population affected by hunger in the region (slightly over 16 percent), compared with about 8 percent in Central America and in South America.
However, after a general upward trend in hunger in the Caribbean since 2015, and a notable increase from 2019 to 2020, hunger remained unchanged from 2020 to 2021, albeit still above pre-pandemic levels.
In contrast, hunger has nearly doubled in South America since 2015. while in the Caribbean it has increased by 2.2 percentage points and in Central America by 0.9 percentage points.
“We are facing a major and complex crisis that requires unprecedented actions, not only by governments but all players in the regional agrifood sytem”, said Berdegué.
Food insecurity continues to worsen
Food insecurity also continued to worsen in Latin America and the Caribbean, driven in large part by South America, although the deterioration has slowed following a relatively sharp rise in food insecurity in 2020.
In 2021, 40.6 percent of the population – 268 million people - was facing moderate or severe food insecurity – an increase of 1.1 percentage points since 2020.
Severe food insecurity affected 93,5 million people in 2021, after rising 1.4 percentage points, to 14.2 percent – an increase of nearly 10 million more people in one year, and almost 30 million more when compared with 2019.
“The number of people in food insecurity in the region suggests that the problem is no longer limited to social groups that have lived in poverty for a long time; food insecurity has now reached the cities and tens of thousands of households that had not experienced it before,” said Berdegué.
Widening gender gap in food security
The global gender gap in food insecurity – which had grown in 2020 under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic – widened even further from 2020 to 2021, driven largely by the widening differences in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Asia.
In 2021, 31.9 percent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure compared to 27.6 percent of men. The growing gap is most evident in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the difference between men and women was 11.3 percentage points in 2021 compared to 9.4 percentage points in 2020.
Impact of the war in Ukraine
Regarding the impacts of the war in Ukraine, the simulations contained in the SOFI suggest that under the moderate shock scenario, the global number of undernourished people in 2022 would increase by 7.6 million people, while this rise would amount to 13.1 million people above baseline estimates under the more severe shock setting.
For Latin America and the Caribbean, by 2022, this would mean an increase of 0.62 percent in the number of undernourished people in the region – 350 thousand people – under the moderate shock scenario, and 1.13 percent – 640 thousand people – in the more severe shock setting.
FAO and PAHO warn that hunger has increased in six countries and now affects 2.4 million persons in the region. While, overweight continues to be a public health problem across the Americas.
10 October 2017, Santiago, Chile - The total number of persons that suffer from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased, reversing decades of progress.
Meanwhile, overweight affects all age groups in men and women, and constitutes a major health problem in all countries in the region of the Americas.
This is according to the Panorama of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean 2017, published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).
The publication also highlights that after many years of gradual progress, in 2016, approximately 42.5 million persons did not have enough food for their daily caloric needs. This is an increase of 2.4 million persons, 6% more of the undernourished population than the year before. If this trend does not change "it will be very difficult for the region to reach Sustainable Development Goal 2 on eradicating hunger and malnutrition by 2030", said Julio Berdegué, FAO Regional Representative.
While hunger levels remain low in Latin America and the Caribbean in comparison to the rest of the world, there are signs that the situation is getting worse, especially in South America, where hunger grew from 5% in 2015 to 5.6% in 2016. In Mesoamerica, hunger affected 6.5% of the population in 2016. Although hunger has not increased in the Caribbean, its prevalence is at 17.7%, making it the sub-region with the greatest prevalence.
"We are heading along a bad path. The region has taken a significant step backwards in a fight that it was winning. We cannot tolerate the current levels of hunger and obesity, as they will paralyse the entire Latin American and Caribbean generation", warned FAO Regional Representative, Julio Berdegué.
Only a few decades ago, governments of the region joined forces to fight against acute malnutrition, chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency, today they must also fight against overweight and obesity.
"While malnutrition persists in the region, especially amongst vulnerable populations, it is now accompanied by overweight and obesity, affecting women more than anyone and also children", affirmed PAHO Director, Carissa F. Etienne.
"The region faces a double burden of malnutrition, to fight against it, we must ensure access to a balanced diet and tackle the primary social factors that cause malnutrition, such as, the lack of access to healthy foods that are low in sugar, salt and fat, to water and sanitation, to education and health services and to social protection programmes, amongst others", Etienne indicated.
To address this situation, FAO and PAHO call on countries to transform their food systems in order to stop the advancement of hunger and malnutrition, paying special attention to the condition of the most vulnerable people, homes and territories. The publication highlights that only through a great regional effort can the current trend be reversed, to return on the path that made Latin America and the Caribbean a global example of the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
The worse situation in terms of prevalence of hunger is in Haiti, where 47% of the population, that is approximately 5 million people, suffer from hunger. This number represents almost two-thirds of all undernourishment across countries of the Caribbean.
Although hunger at the regional level has increased, 21 countries of the region have lowered their level of undernourishment, including the Caribbean and Mesoamerican as a whole, between 2013/2015 and 2014/2016.
In Brazil, Cuba and Uruguay, the prevalence of undernourishment is less than 2.5%, while in Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago it is below 5%.
Overweight and obesity affect all age groups in men and women, and is a public health problem in all countries of the Americas, as pointed out in the Panorama of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean 2017.
The publication shows that in South America, 7.4% (2.5 million) of the children under 5 years of age suffer from overweight and obesity, equivalent to 6% of the children in Central America and 6.9% of the children in the Caribbean. Furthermore, a third of the adolescents, and two thirds of the adults suffer from overweight and obesity, women being the most affected.
While acute malnutrition (underweight for the size) has been practically eliminated from children under 5 years old in the region, there are already 11% suffering from chronic malnutrition (stunting), but it should be noted that 7% of the children suffer from overweight.
"Nowadays, it is easy to find homes with one malnourished child and an overweight mother, or a chronically malnourished and overweight child or one with a vitamin and mineral deficiency", Etienne stated. She highlighted that "the consumption of over processed products is directly related to the increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, as well as non-communicable diseases. It is in this area that we must intensify our efforts at the country level to help people to have access to healthy food".
The Panorama of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean 2017 reports on the progress of countries in the region in meeting the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for the first time since the approval of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. It also gives policymakers the information they need to propose and advance policies and programmes that help to fight against hunger, chronic malnutrition and to stop the rapid spread of the obesity epidemic.