Following our report on ‘The return of hunger to Central America?’ (item added to the website in September 2021), a report appeared in El Economista on 30th November 2021 addressing the same theme but more specifically in the Northern Triangle of Central America. A report for the BBC World also addressed the theme. Salient points from both reports are summarised here.
El Economista report claims that Latin America is the worst affected region of the world by the pandemic in terms of food insecurity. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food security indicators show a regression of 15 years.
The prevalence of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean currently stands at 9.1 per cent of the population affected, the highest rate reached in the last 15 years. That means that almost 60 million people are affected in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean. Also between 2014 and 2020 there has been an increase of almost 79 per cent in the number of people experiencing hunger in the sub-continent.
Between 2019 and 2020, Central America suffered the highest annual increase compared with equivalent annual changes over the last 20 years – that is, an increase of over 10 per cent, or 19 million people. The BBC report suggested that countries with the highest rates of inequality and poverty before the pandemic were the worst affected by the scarcity of food during the pandemic.
According to the report in El Economista the three Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) experienced the highest increases in moderate and serious hunger. In El Salvador the rate of moderate or serious food insecurity reached 47.1 per cent, in Guatemala 49.7 per cent and in Honduras 45.6 per cent.
Sources:
- Irma Cantizzano, 30 Noviembre 2021, ‘Inseguridad alimentaria subió 4 puntos en Triángulo Norte de C.A. a causa de la pandemia’, El Economista.
- BBC Mundo, 30 Noviembre, 2021, ‘Seis cifras que muestran el gran impacto de la pandemia en América Latina’.