Hunger rate in Caribbean on the rise – new UN report

The new United Nations report, Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023, has revealed that 6.5 per cent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean suffers from hunger, or 43.2 million people.
Although this figure represents a slight improvement of 0.5 per cent, the prevalence of hunger in the Region is still 0.9 percentage points above the 2019 records prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Moreover, the scenario is disparate at the sub-regional level. In South America, the number of hungry people declined by 3.5 million between 2021 and 2022. However, there are six million additional undernourished people compared to pre-COVID-19.
The scenario is different in the Caribbean, where 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. Between 2019 and 2022, the increase was one million people, with the highest prevalence in Haiti.
Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Mario Lubetkin underscored, “The hunger figures in our Region continue to be worrying. We see how we are moving further and further away from meeting the 2030 agenda, and we have not yet managed to improve the figures before the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Region has persistent challenges such as inequality, poverty, and climate change, which have reversed progress in the fight against hunger for at least 13 years. This scenario obliges us to work together and act as soon as possible.”
The report also informs that, in 2022, 247.8 million people in the Region experienced moderate or severe food insecurity. That is, they were forced to reduce the quality or quantity of the food they consumed or even went without food.
In South America, more than a third of the population suffered moderate or severe food insecurity. In the Caribbean, during 2022, 60.6 per cent of the population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.
The United Nations report notes that inequalities in Latin America and the Caribbean significantly impact the food security of the most vulnerable people. The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity continues to affect women more than men.
Latin America and the Caribbean is increasingly facing the complex problem of malnutrition, which encompasses both undernutrition – stunting, childhood wasting, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies – and overweight and obesity.
According to the report, the Region experienced an increase in the prevalence of overweight in children under five, between 2000 and 2022 and the prevalence of obesity in adults between 2000 and 2016, in both cases exceeding the global average.
Obesity is not the only challenge in this area. Some countries still have a high prevalence of stunting in children. At the regional level, this figure reached 11.5 per cent. Although a significant reduction has been achieved since 2000, the decline has slowed recently.
UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille said, “In Latin America and the Caribbean, child malnutrition is a problem that, in its different forms, continues to impact children and adolescents. Child undernutrition and overweight are two sides of the same coin and require a comprehensive approach. Childhood overweight has increased alarmingly in the last two decades, threatening the health and well-being of children.”
Meanwhile, Latin America and the Caribbean has 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.