Special report launched “Financing for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean”

Context

Hunger and malnutrition persist as global challenges, also affecting Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). There are different proposals about policies and interventions to address these problems jointly as a region and for each country, but they are generally not accompanied by proposals on how to finance the actions necessary to eliminate hunger and combat malnutrition.

The report “Financing for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean”

presents a first approach to the issue of the financing required to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms in LAC.

The document presents a brief synthesis of the discussion on the methodologies used to estimate the costs of ending hunger and other forms of malnutrition, and summarizes some existing estimates for the region. It is highlighted that there are few detailed analyses have been conducted for LAC, and even fewer for individual countries. The lack of specific cost information presents a challenge when considering effective financing strategies.

In addition to reviewing estimates of the costs of resolving the aforementioned issues, the report also makes reference to the potential costs of not doing so: i.e. failing to meet the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (in particular SDG 2) and other international agreements on hunger and malnutrition.

This document presents 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.

Participants

The event will be attented by FAO’s Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mario Lubetkin; Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs; World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Lola Castro and the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero.

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