By: Staff Writer
September 7, 2021
The Caribbean showed the sharpest increase in food insecurity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2019 to 2020 the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in recent report.
The FAO, in its State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2021, notes that while more than half of the world’s undernourished are found in Asia, some 418m, and more than one-third in Africa, equal to 282m. However, compared with 2019, about 46m more people in Africa, 57m more in Asia, and about 14m more in Latin America and the Caribbean were affected by hunger in 2020, showing a stark increase over the course of that period.
The report also said, “The increases in moderate or severe food insecurity from 2019 to 2020 were sharpest in Latin America and the Caribbean (9 percentage points) and Africa (5.4 percentage points), compared with a 3.1-point increase in Asia. Even in Northern America and Europe, where the lowest rates of food insecurity are found, the prevalence of food insecurity increased for the first time since the beginning of Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) data collection in 2014.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll, from frayed supply chains to factories that have been shuttered due to a lack of processors have created a supply shortage in the food market, making food less accessible to everyone.
“Of the 2.37 billion people facing moderate or severe food insecurity, half 1.2bn are found in Asia, one-third (799 million) in Africa, and 11 percent (267 million) in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the report added.
The report also said that: “Marked increases in food insecurity were observed in most subregions of Latin America and the Caribbean. In Central and South America, less than 40 percent of the population is facing moderate or severe food insecurity, and levels of severe food insecurity are 11 and 13 percent, respectively. However, both subregions registered 9-point increases in moderate or severe food insecurity, and 4-point increases in severe food insecurity, in 2020.
“In the Caribbean subregion, for which estimates are being reported this year for the first time, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 71.3 percent in 2020 – nearly three-quarters of the population. Of those, more than half faced severe food insecurity – 39 percent of the population.”
Essentially the Caribbean is running out of food for the majority of its people. The pandemic has taken its toll as countries affected by economic downturns in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean show the highest increase in the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) compared with countries affected by climate extremes and conflict, with the largest increase seen in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the estimates point to a PoU of 16.1 percent in the Caribbean, compared with 10.6 in Central America and 7.8 in South America.
The report also said, “While the regional prevalence estimates reveal the depth of hunger in each region, translating them into numbers of people gives a sense of where most of the people facing hunger in the world live. Of the total number of undernourished people in 2020, some 768m, more than half of these people live in Asia and more than one-third, over 282m in Africa, while Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for about 8 percent or 60m.