Panama City, Aug 24 (EFE).- The reduction in the levels of moderate or severe food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, the only region in the world that managed to lower them between 2022 and 2023, is a “hopeful sign” that should be analyzed in the coming years, but which, in contrast, is not slowing down equally, said the regional representative of the FAO, Uruguayan Mario Lubetkin, in an interview with EFE.
“The fact that Latin America and the Caribbean are going in a different direction, as a single region, is a sign, not a trend. Let’s say it’s a hopeful sign,” said Lubetkin, FAO’s deputy director general, during an official visit this week to Panama, where he insisted that it is necessary to see if this decline in figures continues for at least three consecutive years to confirm the “trend.”
Between 2022 and 2023, Latin America reduced levels of moderate or severe food insecurity from 31.4% to 28.2% of the affected population, which is still equivalent to 187.6 million people, according to the United Nations.
Specifically, it was the only region to decline, in contrast to Africa (from 57.9% to 58%), Asia (24.7-24.8%), Oceania (24.1-26.8%) and North America and Europe (8.5-8.7%), regions where it remained stable or increased slightly.
Latin America also saw a drop in severe food insecurity – those who do not eat for one or more days – from 11% to 8.7%, which is equivalent to 14 million fewer people in that situation.
These figures are included in the annual report on ‘The state of food security and nutrition in the world’ presented in July in Brazil, coinciding with the G20 ministerial meetings – a fact that Lubetkin highlights – and prepared by five UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, WHO, WFP and UNICEF).
“Every person who is freed from hunger is a victory for everyone. But it is clear that if we are referring to the 41 million people who still suffer from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4.3 million is only 10%,” stresses the FAO Deputy Director General.
Three unequal “subregions”
“On the one hand, the signal, although positive because the problem is serious, is also alarming in the fact that if you look at the numbers for the region, you see three regions,” warns Lubetkin, who points out that this division corresponds to the geography of the region: south, center and Caribbean.
The UN report also revealed that famine specifically affected 5.2% of the population in South America, 5.8% in Mesoamerica and 17.2% in the Caribbean.
Lubetkin explains that South America “is the one that is going the furthest and sustaining this improvement” and that in Central America – Mesoamerica “there is no doubt that there is a great effort to try to improve food security, but climate change is also an aspect that is affecting and neutralizing many efforts.”
And, he points out, there is “a Caribbean that continues to increase hunger levels” with countries in serious trouble like Haiti.
“In addition to the fact that (the drop in levels) is not homogeneous, (there is) the seriousness of the fact that we have always said that we had a Latin America and (another) Caribbean,” said the FAO director.
There will be no “zero hunger” in 2030, but there will be low levels
According to Lubetkin, if countries “do not change the pace of investment” and “deepen the policy towards food and nutritional security, the Sustainable Development Goal of “zero hunger” by 2030 will not be achieved, but at the same time he applauds that nations are “getting their act together” to improve these levels of hunger.
“There is no doubt that they are moving in a positive direction, (but) the pace is very slow. And if this path is followed, neither Latin America nor the world will reach ‘Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty’ by 2030, if there is no acceleration,” he points out.
Hunger levels remained worryingly high in 2023 for the third consecutive year, with around 733 million people chronically undernourished worldwide, according to the study.
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2024-08-25 22:54:27
