The Conference, after having examined with attention and interest the informal working document on the "Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025" initiative, presented by Guatemala and Brazil, with the support of selected countries (Appendix G-1);
Considering that the proposal had already been the subject of previous examination and positive appreciation in principle, in Rome, by the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC), and presented by this Group in Plenary with a recommendation for its approval;
Taking into account the general consensus at various levels, both national and international, over the need to upscale ongoing initiatives against hunger and poverty;
Recalling furthermore the First Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1) of halving hunger in the world by 2015 and that, according to FAO studies, current conditions in the Region permit an intensification of efforts to obtain more rapid and ambitious results;
Considering in addition that this will require more in-depth study of upscaling methodologies, a strengthening of national institutions, the promotion of exchange and cooperation to this end, greater awareness of successful experiences among countries and the retention of the fight against hunger as a priority on the policy agenda of the countries and of the Region as a whole;
The Conference decided to endorse the "Latin America and Caribbean without Hunger 2025" initiative and to recommend that FAO promote the necessary human and financial resources, including with contributions from third party countries and other international organizations, for its full realization, under the guidance and coordination of its Regional Office in Santiago.
The Conference also decided, in view of its decision on the benefit of studying, coordinating, aligning and, as appropriate, integrating programmes with similar or complementary objectives, to associate the Working Group referred to in Appendix F to charge it with promoting and monitoring the measures needed for the most complete and urgent implementation of this initiative.
I. Introduction
According to the latest FAO data2, there are 53 million undernourished people in Latin America, equivalent to 10 % of the population. In addition, some 20 % of children show moderate, severe or chronic undernutrition. These average figures conceal huge disparities between countries. In 2002, the proportion of undernourished fluctuated above 21% of the total population in seven countries but stood at less than 9% in six others.
The principal cause of undernourishment in Latin America is not a lack of capacity to produce enough food. The region as a whole has a surplus in international food trade, as do most of the countries taken individually. The main problem lies in having access to food. Sizeable segments of the population that do not have the necessary income to purchase food or the resources to produce it themselves.
However, in three countries with high levels of undernutrition the problem of access is compounded by a problem of food production: Haiti, Dominican Republic and Panama. Several countries have also been affected on different occasions by emergency situations caused by natural disasters, economic crises and recessions, which have produced food insecurity and aggravated the incidence of undernutrition.
Between 1990-92 and 2000-02, the number of undernourishment people in the region fell from 59.5 million to 52.9 million, that is from 13% to 10% of the total population. Such progress has not been sufficient and the downward trend appears to have levelled off, to the point of possibly preventing many countries from achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1) of halving hunger and poverty by 2015.
In early 2004, an estimated 222 million people or 42.9% of the total population were living in poverty, including 96 million or 18.6% living in extreme poverty, with 52 million of these in urban areas and almost 45 million in rural areas.
In absolute terms, the number of poor in the region fell during the course of 2004 (216 million against 226 million in 2003) and again in 2005 (213 million). This represents a change in trend as the total number of poor had risen steadily between 1970 and 2003. In percentage terms, the region as a whole has made some progress in the last decade, but interspersed with setbacks generally linked to fluctuations in the regional economy. In the ten years up to 2004, the proportion of poor oscillated between 43% and 46%, then dropped to 42% in 2004 and to an estimated 41% in 2005. However, such progress barely raises the situation to that of the early 1980s, before the external debt crisis.
At country level, progress until 2004 indicates that it is precisely those countries with the highest levels of extreme poverty and the lowest per capita income that face the greatest obstacles and that are unlikely to achieve MDG 1, should trends remain unchanged.
II. The “Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025” initiative (ALCSH 2025)
A review of progress in reducing hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean and of the likelihood of countries achieving the objective of the World Food Summit (WFS) 1996 and MDG 1 of halving hunger by 2015 suggests that only some countries will succeed. The review also tells us that, regardless of expectations of achieving MDG 1, some 31 million people will still be undernourished in 2015.
In view of this perspective of an unacceptably high level of undernutrition in a region that has the economic, technical and production capacity and the natural resources to eliminate the problem, the “Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025” initiative was launched by the Governments of Guatemala and Brazil in September 2005 during the Latin American Conference on Chronic Hunger that was held in Guatemala.
The purpose of this initiative is to encourage the countries of the region to implement public policies that will promote the eradication of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025. This vital and ambitious – but feasible – goal will require the firm political commitment not only of governments but also of national societies in each and every country of the region; and that commitment will have to translate into public policies and programmes that target the main identified problems.
FAO will support actions from such commitment in five key areas: fortifying the food and nutrition security institutional structure in each country; South-South Cooperation between countries of the region and between these and countries of other continents; food security training and awareness raising and communication relating to hunger; Ibero-American networks and a regional policy framework; and monitoring and applied research to track the food security situation.
According to preliminary FAO estimates, the continuation of current trends would produce 40.9 million and 31.5 million undernourished people in Latin America in 2015 and 2025 respectively, equivalent to 7% and 5% of the total population. The highest incidence of undernutrition in 2015 and 2025 would be in Central America (13% and 9% respectively) and in the Caribbean (15% and 11%), albeit with huge variations between countries. The incidence in South America would be 6% and 4%, with less variation between countries.
It is important to note in this connection that undernutrition has already been eliminated in Argentina (incidence equal to or lower than 2.5% of the population) and, according to projections for 2025, will also be eradicated in five other countries (Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay), even without additional measures.
FAO estimates based on progress in hunger reduction since baseline period 1990-92 and the efforts needed to eradicate hunger by 2025 classify the countries into four groups. First, countries that do not require additional efforts or resources to achieve the objective of eliminating hunger by 2025: Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay. Second, countries requiring modest additional efforts: Mexico, El Salvador, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Guyana and Suriname. The third group requires a fair degree of investment: Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Finally the fourth group of countries requires large-scale effort and investment: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The following sections present a policy framework of action and the activities that are needed to get the initiative under way, taking into account the current state of hunger in the region, the objective of ALCSH 2025 and the effort that this represents.
III. Towards a policy framework of action
As stated above, the principal cause of undernutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean and its slow pace of reduction is not a lack of capacity to produce sufficient food but a problem of access to food. There are population groups that do not have sufficient income to access the food that is available on the market or the resources to produce it themselves. In addition, rapid urbanization is fuelling a greater incidence of hunger in urban areas than in rural areas. Natural disasters, social conflict, economic crises and recessions have also exacerbated food insecurity in several countries of the region. However, there is also a small group of countries whose undernutrition can be largely put down to low food production and productivity.
With this in mind, the objective of the “Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025” initiative could be pursued by adopting a policy framework of action that included the following mutually reinforcing thrusts: increased access to food consumption, higher production and productivity of family farms and small or medium rural economic units, and policies for urban food security.
a) Increased access to food consumption
Given the overwhelming importance of ‘access’ in eliminating hunger in the region, this thrust proposes actions in the following areas:
Reduced disparity of income. The concentration of income in Latin America is more extreme than in other developing regions and the industrialized countries. And the polarization of income distribution has not lessened in recent decades; if anything, it has increased. Latin America’s development model therefore needs elements that are coherent with the international context and foster a market economy, and that can thereby reduce exclusion and promote equality of opportunity. This is essential if there is to be growth with equity and a more equitable distribution of income.
Wages and salaries account for more than 80% of total income. Consequently, while public transfer policies can be important for the alleviation of poverty and the reduction of hunger, any realistic possibilities of enhancing income distribution are linked to the generation of employment and the improvement of productivity.
Education and training of the workforce and conditions for greater productive investment are essential for improving the level of equity.
The labour market has important characteristics and strong asymetries. it is important that the economic model fosters growth accompanied by higher demand for labour. In addition, labour markets need to be flexible to avoid the resistances that impede employment growth, but this should not simply signify an absence of job security and should be buttressed by policies of unemployment protection and benefit.
Strengthening the food distribution system and decentralizing storage capacity. The rapid expansion of supermarkets in the region, the exclusion of vulnerable groups (small farmers) from this process and the worsening state of food insecurity in some countries have recently fuelled renewed interest in certain countries in upscaling the role of the State in food systems, especially in the distribution. A number of related public programmes have been set up, such as the Food Procurement Programme in Brazil, the Rural Food Entitlement Programme in Mexico and the Agricultural Supplies and Services Corporation, Misión Mercal and Misión Mercalito in Venezuela.
A degree of consensus now exists over the complementary roles of the market and the State, as well as the role of civil society. Thus, any consolidation of food distribution systems and development and future capacity of storage will involve the market, the State and civil society. The development of competitive food markets and storage technology, together with access to financing, are key aspects for facilitating food consumption in the event of external disruptions and for maintaining purchasing power and/or ensuring food supply. The State’s action should focus on identifying and resolving the inadequacies of food markets, and on providing an appropriate physical infrastructure (roads, communications, etc.) and institutional infrastructure (property rights, food quality and safety standards, biosecurity, etc.) for those markets to function properly. The involvement of civil society will ensure observance of consumer and citizen rights.
Ensuring the access of the neediest groups to food through social protection systems and other programmes of direct assistance. Policies directed towards the achievement of these priority objectives should start from an approach based on human rights. One fundamental policy requisite in this regard is the existence of information to accurately identify and locate the hungry. FAO and WFP can help steer governments towards beneficiaries through the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS) and the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit.
Social safety net policies specifically targeted at hunger reduction should recognize the special vulnerability of women and children to malnutrition at critical times in their lives and should support the creation and implementation of programmes on, for example, mother and child feeding, health and nutrition education and school feeding.
National commitment and relevant policies towards gender equality and women’s rights are essential to enhancing access to food. At household level, the improved status of women has proven to be the single most important variable in reducing malnutrition.
Finally, policy commitment by governments and non-State actors is essential for international humanitarian assistance to ensure access to food in times of natural disaster and economic crisis.
b) Higher production and productivity of family farms and small or medium rural economic units
There is a need to increase agricultural productivity and enhance living conditions and food security in poor rural areas. Improving the performance of small farms and periurban agricultural units in resource-poor areas is one of the most productive and sustainable ways of reducing hunger and prepares the ground for more equitable economic development. International experience inside and outside the region indicates that agriculture-driven economic growth has a greater impact on reducing poverty and hunger than does growth driven by any other sector. The increase in employment and agricultural income raises demand for non-agricultural goods and services and acts as a stimulus to off-farm sources of rural income. The corollary is that the additional demand for agricultural products should come from outside the rural sector, which should also be in a position the meet demand pull from domestic and external markets.
Better agricultural performance increases food availability (or income to purchase food) and therefore enhances the nutritional status of rural households, raising their ability to lead full lives, to study and work more effectively, and to contribute to the general welfare of society. But it also increases and diversifies the supply of agricultural products on local markets, creates the basis for expansion and diversification of tradable goods, opens up employment opportunities and curbs rural-urban migration.
Agricultural development at small-farm level requires policy frameworks that are favourable to sectoral growth, together with research and extension institutions that respond to real farmer needs. Small-farmer associations and agricultural communities, acting in collaboration with NGOs and other civil society organizations, can play an important role in removing some of the difficulties or restrictions that their members and other rural poor are up against. The function of these institutions and alliances is all the more important at a time when the State has almost completely withdrawn from the provision of services such as marketing and agricultural credit.
Promoting the sustainable use of natural resources. While Latin America has relatively plentiful natural resources, a large proportion of increased agricultural production should come from a more intensive and efficient use of its land, water and genetic resources. At the same time, the destruction and degradation of its natural resource base will have to be halted. All this will require significant investment to manage resources, improve technology and develop practices to intensify agricultural production in a sustainable manner. Additional investment will therefore be needed to: 1) improve irrigation schemes and land and water conservation practices; 2) conserve, appraise and enhance the use of plant and animal genetic resources; and 3) harvest fishery and forest resources sustainably.
With regard to water, a major problem is growing competition between agriculture and other uses (domestic, industrial, etc.). As agriculture is the main user of water, more efficient use on its part will increase availability to other users. Policies affecting water use should promote enhanced efficiency and ensure that user behaviour reflects water scarcity. Transparent, stable and transferable rights of use are powerful instruments for promoting efficiency and equitable distribution.
As for land, the main policy issues are access and tenure (private or collective ownership, leasing or long-term rights of use), better management practices and investment in soil fertility. Security of land access contributes significantly to its sustainable use. Strengthening the rights of indigenous populations and of women to possess and inherit land is therefore of primary importance.
Ensuring present and future access to an adequate diversity of genetic resources requires national and international policies. An appropriate regulatory framework is needed for the authorization of varieties and the distribution of seeds that can facilitate synergies between the public, private and informal seed sectors. With regard to animal genetic resources, national and international regulatory frameworks still need to be developed to guide actions at country level.
The key policy issue for fisheries is limiting access to natural resource stocks whose capture, especially in the case of marine stocks, has already reached or exceeded the limits of sustainability. Governments and stakeholder groups need to share responsibility and authority for ensuring the limits on access to these resources are respected.
As concerns forestation, the institutions and policies that govern the use and conservation of Latin America’s wealth of resources need to be strengthened so that these are used to best effect and for the good of all social groups. Policies should promote the participation of stakeholders in forest planning and harvesting.
Expanding rural infrastructure and increasing market access. Although many countries have invested heavily in infrastructure, most still have serious inadequacies in their rural areas, especially areas with a predominance of subsistence farmers and/or small producers. This translates into low competitiveness and higher transaction costs for national agricultural products in expanding domestic and external markets. The highest priority should be given to maintaining, upgrading and extending rural roads and other basic infrastructure needed to stimulate private investment in the production, marketing and processing of agricultural products.
Investment in rural infrastructure aimed at improving market access will also produce more general and widespread socio-economic benefits, especially in the poor rural areas. While private sector involvement in the building of infrastructure and associated services can increase efficiency and better respond to overall needs, it does not necessary encompass the less developed agricultural regions. The public sector must therefore continue to play an active role in such investment. Policies should encourage decentralization and the participation of small farmers and their associations or communities in the programming, application, maintenance and financing of infrastructural investments, in order to ensure that service provision responds to effective demand, is sustainable and incorporates various forms of public and private collaboration.
Enhancing market access also means implementing coordinated policies and putting in place legal and regulatory frameworks that comply with internationally contracted obligations on food safety and sanitary and phytosanitary standards. Public and private collaboration in the provision and certification of services and flexible approaches for the gradual attainment of standards are effective ways of ensuring access to external markets.
Strengthening capacity to generate and disseminate knowledge. The access of small and medium farmers to modern agricultural technology requires the existence of effective national systems of knowledge generation and dissemination. The development of agricultural research and technology is becoming increasingly dominated by private companies that also supply inputs and market products. However, there continue to be many areas of agricultural research and extension that offer little benefit to the private sector but that are vital to agricultural development and the sustainable management of natural resources; for example, most technologies used by small farmers, especially those that do not depend on purchased inputs, such as integrated pest control and practices to increase soil organic content, to enhance the effectiveness of fertilizer use or to conserve genetic resources.
Policies need to ensure that small farmers benefit from technological advance (in agriculture, information technology, communications etc.). This is particularly true for areas with limited agro-ecological potential that are normally sidelined by corporate research. Public financing should cover the development and adjustment of technological options to such areas. Technologies should also address the objectives of environmental sustainability. Farmers’ organizations, women’s associations and other civil society groups can conjure the necessary collaboration between farmers and specialists to ensure that innovations are relevant and needed.
c) Policies for urban food security
Accelerating urbanization in Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century highlighted the problems of urban food insecurity in Latin American. Outmigration from rural to urban areas has increased considerably in the last 30 years due to market liberalization and structural adjustment, lack of opportunity in rural areas and the changing face of agriculture. This accelerated urbanization and the absence of policy to deal with it have created poverty belts around Latin American cities during the last 20 years, and thus an increase in urban poverty and undernutrition.
The formulation of policies and programmes on urban food security is facilitated by the fact that they: a) have to reach a much more concentrated population, b) can rely on a network of public services (education, health) that are usually more advanced and extensive than in rural areas, and c) can be based on a more effective civil society and on a network of NGOs that can act as a bridge between public and private actions. At the same time, the large number of activities that the poor resort to limits the scope of sector-specific policies for improving livelihoods. In general, urban food security policies can be grouped into two categories: i) those that improve and protect livelihoods of the poor, and ii) those that focus directly on improving food and nutrition security.
Policies to improve and protect urban livelihoods. The activities of the urban hungry need to receive support if they are to improve their livelihood base, especially activities that are labour intensive (public works, construction, small trade and services). Boosting the functioning of urban markets by improving the infrastructure and strengthening market institutions will reduce transaction costs and make it easier to incorporate the urban poor.
Effective social safety net programmes, for example food subsidies and health care, cash transfers and help for the unemployed can be crucial in protecting the livelihoods of the urban poor, given their heavy dependence on the informal economy. It is important therefore to ensure that such benefits are not restricted to the formal economy.
The region has invested considerably in income transfer programmes, mostly direct transfers to the most vulnerable population groups or communities. However, most of these programmes have the same failing: they offer no “way out” for beneficiary families. On the contrary, they tend to instil a degree of dependence.
Besides specific food security policies, significant investment in at least three areas is required if families are to have the opportunity and income to leave their nutritional vulnerability permanently behind: (i) education, including an improvement in basic schooling; (ii) technical training for the industrial and service sectors; and (iii) specific employment and income generation policies for different sectors and social groups.
Millions of urban dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean are involved in urban and periurban agriculture, producing a large proportion of the food consumed in urban areas. Vegetable growing can be a significant urban livelihood, as it uses small plots of land and waste water, and the sale of vegetables can enable the poor to purchase other foods. Vegetables are also a good source of vitamins and micronutrients. Periurban agriculture is also an important source of meat, milk and eggs. FAO is currently applying its wealth of experience in this domain to a vast programme in Venezuela, which is proving to be highly successful and socially useful.
Any expansion of urban agriculture will have to deal with growing competition for land for housing, infrastructure and other public services. Urban agriculture policies will also have to reconcile the potential benefits with the costs to the environment and public health.
Direct support to urban food and nutrition security. Policies and programmes to reduce urban food insecurity need to look at its nature and main causes. One important aspect is the quality and wholesomeness of the food. Urban homes, especially poor urban homes, depend to some extent on precooked food sold in public. The high fat and sugar content of such food can induce obesity and increase non-communicable disease.
Policies need to address the causes of unhealthy eating rather than seek directly to dissuade consumption (through regulation or taxation). For example, policies should focus on improving the quality and safety of purchased food, given that this is generally prepared and served in less hygienic conditions than food prepared at home. This can be achieved through instruction and training on hygienic food handling, public awareness raising and programmes of food fortification and supplementation.
It is essential to improve access to clean water to reduce the incidence of water-borne disease. Better access to water needs to be combined with practical measures to improve hygiene. Children’s vaccination and immunization programmes are a vital part of public health and are essential for improving the benefits of food. Regrettably, these are often neglected in the cities of developing countries.
d) Estimated additional annual public investment
FAO’s Anti-Hunger Programme has estimated the average annual public expenditure required to implement a comprehensive programme aimed at achieving the World Food Summit target of halving hunger by 2015. The estimates for Latin America and the Caribbean break down as follows:
Latin America and the Caribbean – Additional annual public investment needed to achieve the World Food Summit target
(thousand million dollars)
Improving the productivity of small-scale agriculture 0.15 Developing and conserving natural resources 1.33 Boosting rural infrastructure and access to markets 0.37 Strengthening capacity for technological innovation 0.42 Subtotal agricultural and rural development 2.27 Ensuring access of the neediest to food 0.35 Total 2.62 |
The pursuit of a more ambitious goal such as the elimination of hunger by 2025 would probably more than double the expenditure. The additional cost of reducing hunger to zero would increase more than proportionately when seeking to eradicate the last pockets of hunger.
IV. Implementation of the ALCSH 2025 initiative
Besides the above investment requirements, a number of institutional dispositions are urgently needed to facilitate action and open the way for new investments. Taking into account the state of hunger in the region, the policy framework outlined above and the stated objectives of the Guatemala Declaration, implementation of the Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025 initiative could begin with FAO support and activities centred around the five thrusts of the initiative. Initial actions could include the following:
a) Institutional strengthening to promote and reinforce National Food Security Systems, understood as an assembly of institutions governed by a legislative and regulatory framework and equipped with a budget allocation to carry out actions set out in policy, strategy and action plan documents, with clear objectives and indicators to monitor the process.
Each National Food Security System should be supported by the respective government and consist of a National Food Security Programme (NFSP) that extends good practices3 to millions of undernourished people within a concrete time frame and with low investment costs per household.
Technical support will be needed to formulate National Food and Nutrition Security Plans for achievement of the objective of the ALCSH 2025 initiative.
b) South-South Cooperation for exchange between peers, involving national technicians, peasant farmer entrepreneurs, business operators, government officials, and policymakers to facilitate the exchange of experiences at various levels, through both short and extended visits. Related actions could benefit from the South-South Cooperation programme that FAO has been promoting to foster reciprocal support among developing countries. the format of South-South Cooperation should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the different modalities requested by countries.
Exchange visits between policymakers and government officials of the region would serve to examine the best practices of each country and to exchange experiences in aspects such as national strategies and legislation on food and nutrition security, coordination between the public and private sector and civil society, child nutrition, conditional cash transfers, rural financing, land access, non-agricultural rural activities and extension services.
Other elements of cooperation between countries of the region are extended field assignments of technicians and support consultancies to prepare documents and plans of action. Most of the support technicians should come from within the region. The technical cooperation agencies, international financial institutions and other entities would collaborate through technical support and financial assistance to facilitate the exchanges.
c) Training and awareness raising to produce a critical mass of professionals and leaders with the tools and skills needed to plan, manage and coordinate food and nutrition security policies and programmes at national and subnational level. Two areas of intervention are envisaged: technical training in food security for government officials, technicians, academics and local managers; and awareness raising and communication relating to the problem of hunger at different levels (ministers, policymakers and deputies; technicians, business operators, opinion formers; churches, NGOs and civil society in general).
Technical training would be through distance or in-person training activities existing in countries or organized by international cooperation institutions.
Awareness raising could initially be carried out by a regional group of policymakers and researchers who would make top-level country visits to present the initiative and muster national support and commitment to carry it forward. Awareness raising plans could then be developed at other national levels, targeting policymakers, deputies, journalists, entrepreneurs, academics and NGOs.
d) Ibero-American networks and a regional policy framework to support governments in coordinating, promoting and networking food security initiatives and linking them to other ongoing initiatives in the region.
The development of a network of national and subregional activities should draw upon the process and commitments of the Ibero-American Summits of Heads of State and Government, with the collaboration and support of the Ibero-American General Secretariat.
For institutional anchorage, the ALCSH initiative should connect with other regional initiatives, actions, groups or periodic events, such as the Ibero-American Summits and the Summits of the Americas, and with the International Alliance Against Hunger.
e) Monitoring and applied research to track changes in food security in the region, through the Latin America Observatory of Hunger and Poverty, a multi-institutional body with several branches that will promote and coordinate joint applied research initiatives on different aspects of hunger in the region. The Observatory could also evaluate the results of national programmes and the ALCSH 2025 initiative in general, with the help of FAO’s experience and its mechanisms to monitor the food security situation, including the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS), the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit and the annual publication “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” (SOFI).
1 The full text of the statement (LARC/06/INF/4) is given in Appendix A.
2 FAO (2005). The State of Food and Agriculture. FAO Rome.
3 Proven activities or processes that can be replicated on a large scale.
