UN: 43.2 million face hunger in Latin America, Caribbean

THE United Nations (UN) estimates that 43.2 million people suffer from hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The UN made this observation in a statement issued by its Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Sunday.

Although the figure represents a slight improvement of 0.5 percentage points over the previous measurement, the FAO said the prevalence of hunger in the region was still 0.9 percentage points above the 2019 records prior to the outbreak of covid19.

In South America, the number of hungry people declined by 3.5 million between 2021 and 2022.

But the FAO said there were six million more undernourished people compared to the pre-covid19 scenario.

The scenario is different in the Caribbean.

The FAO said, in this region, 7.2 million people experienced hunger in 2022, with a prevalence of 16.3 per cent.

Compared to 2021, this number increased by 700,000.

The FAO added between 2019 and 2022, the increase was one million people, with the highest prevalence in Haiti.

Inequality, poverty and climate change were identified as contributing factors to hunger in the Latin America-Caribbean region.

Against this background, World Food Programme (WFP) regional director Lola Castro said he WFP is supporting regional governments in promoting "actions that protect the most vulnerable people and transform food systems to make them more resilient."

She also said the WFP was helping regional governments to promote "holistic policies that promote healthy and affordable diets."

The FAO estimated that Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest healthy diet costs worldwide.

"Between 2020 and 2021, the cost of a healthy diet increased by 5.3 per cent in the region, which can be explained by rising food inflation driven by confinements, global supply chain disruptions, and human resource shortages.

The FAO said Latin America and the Caribbean have a healthy diet cost of approximately US$4.08 per day.

The region is followed by Asia, with US$3.90 per da; Africa, with US$3.57 per day; North America and Europe, with US$3.22 per day; and Oceania, with US$3.20 per day.

The FAO said child malnutrition continues to be a problem in Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean regional director Garry Conille called on regional countries to "promote public health policies that protect children's right to nutrition, ensuring their access to nutritious food and adequate services and practices."