FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean

What is the Regional Overview

The Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition is a publication that presents an update on the state of food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report is part of a joint work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO); the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). 

Undernourishment and Food insecurity decline for second year in a row 

The Regional Overview 2024 reports that Latin America and the Caribbean region has presented a reduction in the prevalence of both undernourishment (hunger) and food insecurity, the only region with this trend worldwide. The prevalence of undernourishment fell from 6.6% in 2022 to 6.2% in 2023, continuing the trend observed between 2021 and 2022. This means that 2.9 million people stopped suffering from hunger in our region compared to the previous figure.

The same trend can be observed concerning the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity, which decreased from 31.4% in 2022 to 28.2% in 2023. That is, 19.7 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean stopped suffering from food insecurity. The improvement in numbers is driven by the South America subregion. However, the figures for the Caribbean continue to be worrying.

Cost and access of healthy diets  

The region continues to register the highest cost of a healthy diet compared to others in the world, reaching 4.56 PPP dollars per person per day, while the world average is 3.96 PPP dollars. Therefore, 182.9 million people cannot access this type of diet in our region.

In 2022, at the regional level, 27.7% of people could not access a healthy diet. 50% of the Caribbean population did not have access to a healthy diet due to its high cost; in Mesoamerica, the figure corresponds to 26.3%, and in South America to 26%.

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Fernando Reyes Pantoja

Regional Communication Officer

Paulina Bravo

Communicator for the Regional Better Nutrition Priority

Key Messages

1

Latin America and the Caribbean are not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 Zero Hunger, nor the six goals established by the World Health Assembly, related to malnutrition in its various forms

2

Both the prevalence of hunger and moderate or severe food insecurity decreased compared to the previous figure, maintaining a reduction observed from 2021.

3

In the region, the prevalence of hunger was 6.2% in 2023, affecting 41 million people. This represents a decrease of 0.4 percentage points compared to 2022, that is, 2.9 million fewer people affected.

4

The figures at the subregional level are disparate. Hunger affected 5.8% of the population of Mesoamerica (10.5 million people), 5.2% of the population of South America (22.8 million) and 17.2% of the population of the Caribbean (7, 7 million).

5

In 2023, 28.2% of the regional population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared to 28.9% globally. This marks a milestone as regional prevalence falls below the global level for the first time in 10 years.

6

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was also uneven at the subregional level: 28.2% in Mesoamerica, 25.1% in South America and 58.8% in the Caribbean.

7

Latin America and the Caribbean is the region that has the largest moderate or severe food insecurity gap between men and women, with 5.2 percentage points.

8

In 2023, moderate or severe food insecurity was 8.2 percentage points higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

9

182.9 (27.7%) million people in the region were unable to access a healthy diet in 2022. The region reached the highest cost of a healthy diet compared to other regions, reaching 4.56 PPP dollars daily per person, compared to the world average of 3.96 PPP dollars.

10

The prevalence of obesity in adults shows an increase from 22.4% in 2012 to 29.9% in 2022. Mesoamerica is the subregion with the highest prevalence, standing at 34.4%, followed by South America with 28.6 % and finally the Caribbean with 24.5%.

11

Climate variability and extreme events impact the four dimensions of food security (availability, access, utilization and stability) and the nutritional status of people.

12

Of the countries in the region, 20 have a high exposure to extremes, which means that they occur with a high frequency. Furthermore, 14 countries can be defined as vulnerable to these phenomena.

13

To address the intensification of some of the main drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition, such as climate variability and extreme events, a diverse portfolio of policies and actions is required to accelerate the transformation of agri-food systems to end to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.

Questions and answers

Hunger is the physical sensation of discomfort or pain caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy. In this report, the term “hunger” is used as a synonym for undernourishment, which is defined as the condition of an individual whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the amount of energy needed for a normal, active and healthy life.   

The prevalence of hunger is an indicator (2.1.1) that is part of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), particularly related to goal 2.1 which seeks, by 2030, to end hunger and ensure access for all people, particularly poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to healthy, nutritious and sufficient food throughout the year. This is calculated through an estimate that considers the average minimum calorie requirement, the average calorie consumption and the coefficient of variation of the daily consumption of the population.

Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia remain the only regions that reversed the upward trend in hunger that had been observed since 2019. The prevalence of hunger in the region was 6.2% in 2023, affecting 41 million people. This represents a decrease of 0.4 percentage points compared to 2022, or 2.9 million less people affected.    

At the subregional level, this prevalence was 5.2% for South America, 5.8% for Mesoamerica and 17.2% for the Caribbean. While in the first two a decrease is observed with respect to the prevalence of the previous year, in the Caribbean an increase in hunger is perceived.

Food insecurity refers to restricted access to food for individuals or households, due to limitations of money or other resources. Consequently, it is defined as a lack of continued access to food, which decreases the quality of the diet, disrupts normal eating habits and can have negative consequences for nutrition, health and well-being.  

The prevalence and moderate or severe food insecurity (SDG indicator 2.1.2) is based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). It is built using the FIES Survey Module, which consists of eight questions related to people's access to adequate food and can be easily integrated into various types of population surveys.  

Based on the measurement, the degree of severity can be identified, with moderate food insecurity being a situation in which people face uncertainties regarding their ability to obtain food and are forced, at certain times of the year, to reduce the amount or the quality of the food they consume due to lack of money or other resources. Severe food insecurity, meanwhile, is the situation in which people have probably run out of food, suffer from hunger and, in the most extreme case, go days without eating, putting their health and well-being at serious risk.

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the region was 28.2% in 2023, affecting 186.7 million people. This marks a milestone since for the first time Latin America and the Caribbean is below the world estimate of 28.9%. A decrease of 3.2 percentage points is observed compared to 2022 at the regional level, which indicates that 19.7 million people no longer suffer from this type of food insecurity.  

In the subregions, the Caribbean has the highest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity (58.8% equivalent to 26.3 million people), followed by Mesoamerica (28.2% equivalent to 51 million people) and South America (25 .1% equivalent to 110.4 million people). In the three subregions, decreases in this prevalence are observed compared to 2022.  

Food insecurity continues to affect different groups of the population unequally, with women and residents of rural areas being the most vulnerable. While the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 32.2% in rural areas compared to 26% in urban areas, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the largest gap between men and women in this indicator, reaching 5.2 percentage points.   

This is mainly due to the improvements observed in several South American countries, since, in this subregion, both indicators decreased. Among the reasons are the economic recovery of several South American countries, with an increase in employment levels and a decrease in poverty and extreme poverty levels following the increases in energy prices observed after the COVID-19 pandemic that benefited energy exporting countries in the region. Furthermore, strong social protection systems allowed countries in the region to respond quickly to changes, which is especially important in times of financial constraints. 

Malnutrition is an abnormal physiological condition caused by inadequate, unbalanced or excessive intake of macronutrients and/or micronutrients. Malnutrition includes undernutrition (stunting and wasting in children, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies), as well as overweight and obesity.  

The prevalence of obesity in adults shows an increase from 22.4% in 2012 (91.4 million) to 29.9% in 2022 (141.4 million), considerably above the global level, estimated at 15.8%. Mesoamerica is the subregion with the highest prevalence, standing at 34.4%, followed by South America with 28.6% and finally the Caribbean with 24.5%.  

The new estimates of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life show considerable progress with an increase of almost 9 percentage points, going from 34.3% in 2012 (1.8 million) to 43.1% in 2022 (2 million), slightly below the global estimate of 48%. All subregions show increases in this figure, although of different magnitudes. 

The prevalence of overweight in boys and girls under 5 years of age has increased steadily since 2012, from 7.4% (3.9 million) to 8.6% in 2022 (4.2 million). The regional level is three percentage points above the global average. 

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the cost of a healthy diet reached $4.56 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars per person per day in 2022, the highest cost of all regions worldwide. The Caribbean is the subregion that has the highest cost within Latin America and the Caribbean, reaching 5.16 PPP dollars per person per day, followed by South America, at 4.29 PPP dollars per person per day, and Mesoamerica, at 4.05 PPP dollars.  

In our region, 27.7% of the population (182.9 million people) could not access a healthy diet in 2022. Regarding this indicator, a decrease compared to 2021 of 2.4 percentage points (14.3 million less people who could not access this diet). In the Caribbean, 50% of the population (22.2 million people) could not access a healthy diet, in Mesoamerica, this proportion was 26.3% (47.1 million people) and in South America it was 26% by 2022 (113.6 million people).

The cost of a healthy diet is updated using data from the International Comparison Program (ICP) coordinated by the World Bank, with prices corresponding to the year 2021 published in the 2024 edition of the ICP, unlike the previous methodology that included the 2017 round. The main change compared to previous years is that the 2024 edition of the PCI included a broader list of foods since prices were added for certain products that were previously not available.  

Regarding the affordability indicator of a healthy diet, in the previous methodology, 52% of the household income is used as a threshold for food purchases, while this year a differentiated criterion began to be applied according to country classifications. from the World Bank by income level. Specifically, four income levels of the countries are considered (high, medium-high, medium-low and low), and for each of these levels a different percentage of income is computed to be allocated for food. This means that, with respect to these indicators, it is not possible to compare with previous years. 

Climate variability refers to variations in the average state and other statistical characteristics (standard deviations, frequency of extreme conditions, etc.) of the climate on all spatial and temporal scales broader than those of specific meteorological phenomena. Variability may be due to natural internal processes of the climate system (internal variability) or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability).   

For its part, extreme climate phenomena are defined as the occurrence of a value of a meteorological or climate variable either above or below the normal observed values ​​of said variable.

While climate change occurs over a period of decades or centuries, there are also shorter-term climate variations (e.g. in temperatures and rainfall) and extreme climate events (resulting in droughts, floods, storms, and other phenomena) associated with periodic or intermittent changes related to different natural phenomena (such as El Niño, La Niña, volcanic eruptions or other changes in terrestrial systems). However, not all of these shorter-term climate variations can be attributed to climate change.  

Resilience is the ability of people, households, communities, cities, institutions, systems and societies to anticipate, prevent, absorb, adapt and transform positively, efficiently and effectively in the face of a wide range of risks, maintaining an acceptable level of functioning and without compromising the long-term prospects for sustainable development, peace and security, human rights and well-being for all. 

Policies and interventions must contribute to developing the five capacities for the development of resilience:

  1. anticipatory capacity to take early measures in anticipation of possible threats;
  2. preventive capacity to implement activities and measures that mitigate existing risks and prevent the emergence of new risks;
  3. absorptive capacity to adopt protective measures and recover after a shock;
  4. adaptive capacity to make adjustments, modifications or gradual changes in the characteristics of the systems; and
  5. transformation capacity to create a fundamentally new system when ecological, economic or social structures make the existing system unsustainable. The development of these capacities also requires governance and financing mechanisms.  

High exposure is stablished when a country experiences three or four different types of extreme climate events (floods, storms, droughts, and extreme temperatures), during the two sub-periods of 2013-2017 or 2018-2022 or, alternatively, when extreme weather events occur for at least seven years in 2013-2022. 

The countries exposed to extreme phenomena are Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela.

A country is considered vulnerable if one of the following three conditions is met: (1) a statistically significant correlation between cereal production and some climatic factor; 2) more than 60% of the population works in the agricultural sector or 3) correlation between severe drought alerts and the presence of points of change in the prevalence of undernourishment.

The vulnerable countries are Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and El Salvador. If we also consider those countries with a correlation between cereal imports and these phenomena, Brazil and Panama are to be included.

A country is considered to have been affected by these events if it shows a combination of exposure and vulnerability conditions.

The 13 affected countries are Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and El Salvador.