REUBEN ROBERTSON
LATIN AMERICA and the Caribbean face significant food security challenges. The economic slowdown, the climate crisis, the covid19 pandemic and the recent conflict in Ukraine have had profound effects on agrifood systems and food security.
In 2022, the highest levels of international food prices were recorded and the world is currently facing a price inflationary cycle that mainly affects the most vulnerable populations who spend a higher proportion of their income on food.
The Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022, published by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and other UN agencies last week, sheds light on an additional issue linked to the lack of access to food for millions of families in the world and in our region in particular. This issue relates to the cost of a healthy diet.
Studies have shown that our region has a higher cost for a healthy diet than other regions of the world, with populations in some of our countries spending more than 50 per cent of their daily income on food. This situation has rolled back decades of advancement made in food and nutrition security and increases income inequality in our region.
The high cost of a healthy diet reaches US$3.89 per day per person in the region, while the world average is US$3.54. Most of the people affected by hunger in the Caribbean are in Haiti. In the period between 2019 and 2021, nearly half its population (47.2 per cent) - around 5.4 million people - were undernourished. By comparison, the prevalence of undernourishment on the other end of the spectrum was around seven per cent in Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The report shows how rising international food prices and inflation affect economic access to nutritious food, especially for the poorest. This is because they spend a higher proportion of their income on food compared to those with more resources, deteriorating food security. In addition, the report concludes that there is a link between the lack of economic access or affordability of a healthy diet with the levels of poverty, income inequality and economic growth of the countries, as well as with the levels of hunger and other forms of malnutrition.
The Caribbean was the subregion most affected by food insecurity during 2019-2021. In Haiti, the majority of the population (82.5 per cent) suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity in 2019-2021 (three-year averaged estimate). Over the same period in Jamaica, half the population was affected (50.3 per cent), and in TT 43.3 per cent. In St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, more than 30 per cent of the population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. St Kitts and Nevis and Grenada showed a prevalence higher than 20 per cent.
Stunting, the condition of having a low height for one's age, is a marker for several impacts of undernutrition and is caused by a combin
