By: Staff Writer
April 30, 2024
The Food and Agricultural Organization in a new report said there was a deterioration of food security in The Caribbean.
The Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) 2023 report, presents updated data and trends with respect to the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
“Although the most recent estimates indicate that there have been no increases in the prevalence of hunger and moderate or severe food insecurity globally in 2022, these numbers still exceed pre-pandemic levels. In LAC, there was a reduction of 0,5 percentage points in the prevalence of hunger and 2,8 percentage points in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity between 2021 and 2022, both of which are above global estimates and records prior to COVID-19.”
The report also said: “Furthermore, it is important to highlight the fact that regional figures mask variations between the different subregions, with improvements observed in South America, stability in Mesoamerica and a deterioration in the Caribbean.
“In Mesoamerica, hunger affected 5.1 percent of the population (9.1 million people); in South America, 6.1 percent of the population (26.8 million); and in the Caribbean, 16,3 percent of the population (7.2 million). On the other hand, moderate or severe food insecurity reached 34.5 percent in Mesoamerica, 36.4 percent in South America and 60.6 percent in the Caribbean.”
The cost of maintaining a healthy diet is also higher in the Caribbean than its Latin American counterparts, standing at $4.41 USD per day compared to $3.82 and $3.63 for South America and Mesoamerica respectively.
The report also presented “national policy recommendations to increase the affordability of healthy diets, organized into three categories: (i) producer-oriented policies, to promote diversification of production towards nutritious foods; (ii) policies aimed at food trade and markets, to ensure price transparency and efficiency in marketing; and (iii) consumer-oriented policies, to improve incomes and promote the consumption of healthy diets among the most vulnerable populations.”
This report also documented a conceptual framework for the analysis of possible financial flows and their relationship with agrifood systems and, in particular, for the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. This conceptual framework adopts a broad notion of financing, covering six main types of fund flows in agrifood systems: a) two internal flows within agrifood systems (the first flow being consumers’ spending on food and related products; and the second flow being the income of all economic actors in those systems used to finance production and related activities), and b) four flows external to agrifood systems (international development financing, public budgets, banking operations and capital market financing).
The importance of understanding these flows within the framework of agrifood systems is of utmost importance, covering the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of food. The agrifood systems approach focuses on understanding the connection between agricultural and food policies, costs of hunger and malnutrition, and financial flows.