Food insecurity in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region is a pressing issue, exacerbated by rising food prices. High prices are having a negative effect on consumers throughout the region, particularly the poor, who spend a greater share of their household budgets on food. Food price increases are driving more people into poverty and could impact adversely on their nutrition, as the poor may consume less food or substitute less nutritious food in response to higher prices.
The LAC region is characterized by significant shortages in food supplies, with five countries (Haiti, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras) facing significant shortages prior to the recent food price increases. However, the real constraint to reducing food insecurity in these countries may not be lack of availability of food, but rather lack of access to food. Poverty is the root cause of food insecurity in most LAC countries, not the lack of availability of food.
According to the World Bank, poverty restricts people’s access to the amount and quality of food they need for health and productive lives, as well as access to services such as health, water, and sanitation, and education that can increase food security. Poverty and lack of purchasing power are also the ultimate cause of low levels of food availability in many LAC countries. If poor households in Haiti and Nicaragua had sufficient purchasing power to translate their nutritional needs into effective demand for food, domestic food production would increase or foreign exchange would be used to pay for the food imports required to make up the gap between total food demand and domestic production.
Malnutrition, which is one of the best indicators of poor food utilization, is a serious problem in some LAC countries. In Guatemala, more than 46 percent of young children suffer from chronic malnutrition, which has serious implications for their future economic, social, and political development. Rates of chronic malnutrition are also 20 percent or higher in seven other countries: Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. The prevalence of chronic malnutrition is consistently high in rural areas, where the poor are more likely to live.
The LAC Bureau of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been monitoring the impact of rising food prices in ten LAC countries and the region as a whole since May 2008. The bureau has identified a list of priority countries, selected based on an analysis of food security indicators, and has proposed a food security goal for the LAC Bureau. The goal is to improve food security in the priority countries by increasing access to food, improving food availability, and enhancing food utilization.
The LAC Bureau has also identified a set of priority activities that the bureau and missions can use to adjust their programs to better address food insecurity in the priority countries. These activities include increasing access to credit and other financial services for small farmers, improving agricultural productivity and market access, and enhancing the capacity of governments and civil society organizations to respond to food insecurity. By implementing these activities, the LAC Bureau aims to reduce food insecurity in the priority countries and improve the overall food security situation in the LAC region.