LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends

1.2 PREVALENCE OF FOOD INSECURITY BASED ON THE FOOD INSECURITY EXPERIENCE SCALE (FIES)

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), is an estimate of the proportion of the population facing moderate or severe constraints on their ability to obtain sufficient food over the course of a year. People face moderate food insecurity when they are uncertain of their ability to obtain food and have been forced to reduce, at times over the year, the quality and/ or quantity of food they consume due to lack of money or other resources. Severe food insecurity means that individuals have likely run out of food, experienced hunger and, at the most extreme, have gone for days without eating, putting their health and well-being at serious risk.

Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 29.6 percent of the world population in 2022, while severe food insecurity affected 11.3 percent. However, in recent years, the prevalence has remained stable, after the significant increase registered in 2020.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity decreased by 2.8 percentage points in 2022 compared to the previous year (FIGURE 5). This means that 16.5 million fewer people faced food insecurity in the region (TABLE 4). Despite this improvement, there is still work to be done. The prevalence of food insecurity is still high, standing at 37.5 percent in the region, almost 8 percentage points above the global level. Moreover, the prevalence in 2022 was 6 percentage points above that registered in 2019 (TABLE 3), which means that an additional 44 million people suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity.

In South America, more than a third (36.4 percent) of the population suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022 (TABLE 3). Compared to 2021, the prevalence was reduced by 4.5 percentage points (FIGURE 5), equivalent to a decrease of 18.4 million in the number of people affected (TABLE 4). However, the prevalence in the subregion was still 6.5 percentage points above that of 2019, which means an additional 30 million people suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity compared to the number before the pandemic.

In Mesoamerica, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity reached 34.5 percent in 2022, which was 0.4 percentage point – or 1.3 million people – higher than in 2021. In addition, the prevalence in the subregion was 6.3 percentage points above the level registered in 2019. Prior to the pandemic, between 2015 and 2019, the subregion had shown a decrease of 2 percentage points in the prevalence of food insecurity (TABLE 3).

In the Caribbean, 60.6 percent of the population was moderately or severely food insecure in 2022. Although this implies an increase compared to 2021 of 1.1 percentage points, it is important to note that this prevalence was 4.8 percentage points lower than that observed in 2020 (FIGURE 5).

In terms of severe food insecurity, the prevalence in Latin America and the Caribbean was 12.6 percent in 2022, a little more than one percentage point above the global prevalence. As seen in FIGURE 5, the prevalence showed a reduction of 1.3 percentage points compared to 2021, which means that the number of people affected decreased by 7.7 million (TABLE 5). However, it was almost 3 percentage points – or 20 million people – above the prevalence of severe food insecurity registered in 2019.

In South America, the prevalence of severe food insecurity was 12.7 percent in 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, it showed a reduction of 2.4 percentage points, or 10 million people. Despite this decrease, the prevalence of severe food insecurity is still high (FIGURE 5), and is 4.2 percentage points – or 18.9 million people – higher than that registered in 2019.

In Mesoamerica, severe food insecurity affected 8.6 percent of the population in 2022, which was below the world estimate and the average of the two other subregions. In 2022, it registered an increase of 0.6 percentage point compared to the previous year and is still 1.3 percentage points above the prevalence in 2019, which represents an additional 2.6 million people affected since before the start of the pandemic.

In the Caribbean, severe food insecurity affected 28.2 percent of the population in 2022. Although the prevalence increased compared to the previous year, it was still 4.2 percentage points lower than the figure observed in 2020, which means 1.7 million fewer people suffered from severe food insecurity in this subregion.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, moderate or severe food insecurity affected 247.8 million people in 2022. Of this total, 64 percent, or 159 million people, were in South America. In Mesoamerica, 61.9 million people were affected, while in the Caribbean 26.9 million people suffered from this condition (TABLE 4). It should be noted that the number of people affected by severe food insecurity in the region represents a third of the total number affected by food insecurity in the region. This means that, during 2022, 83.4 million people ran out of food, experienced hunger, or were forced to go days without eating. In South America, 55.4 million people were severely food insecure, in Mesoamerica 15.4 million and in the Caribbean 12.5 million (TABLE 5).

FIGURE 8⁴ shows the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity at the national and subregional levels (three-year averages) while making it possible to analyse the evolution of this indicator over time by comparing the prevalence in different countries and subregions in the most recent triennium of the analysis (2020–2022) against a previous triennium (2014–2016). ⁴ See Tables 19 and 20 in Annex I.

The Caribbean was the subregion with the highest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity during the 2020−2022 triennium. In this period, Haiti was the country with the highest prevalence (82.6 percent), followed by Jamaica with 54.4 percent and the Dominican Republic with 52.1 percent. In Trinidad and Tobago, the prevalence was 43.3 percent, while in Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda about a third of the population suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity. At the other end of the scale, Grenada and the Bahamas showed the lowest prevalence with 21.1 and 17.2 percent, respectively.

In Mesoamerica, more than half of the population in Guatemala and Honduras suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity followed by Belize and El Salvador, which both had a prevalence greater than 45 percent. Mexico and Costa Rica showed the lowest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the subregion, with a prevalence of 27.6 and 16.2 percent, respectively.

In South America, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Suriname, approximately one third of the population suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity. Chile and Uruguay had the lowest prevalence with 18.1 and 15.2 percent, respectively.

When compared with the 2014–2016 triennium, it is observed that most of the countries in the region experienced increases in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the period 2020-2022. Argentina, Paraguay and Guatemala showed the largest increases, with the prevalence up by more than 17 percentage points in each country. However, the Dominican Republic managed to reduce food insecurity in the same period by 2.1 percentage points (FIGURE 8).

In addition, when comparing the 2020–2022 triennium with the 2017–2019 period before the outbreak of the pandemic, important changes can be observed in several countries. In Honduras, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity increased 15.2 percentage points, in Guatemala it rose 14.6 percentage points, and in Brazil 12.2 percentage points. Also, Belize, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and El Salvador experienced an increase in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity of 9.8, 8.7, 8.6 and 6.2 percentage points, respectively (TABLE 19).

The persisting inequalities across the world negatively affect food security and nutrition for the most vulnerable. A clear example is the gender gap, since the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in adults aged 15 or more continues to disproportionately affect women compared to men.^{5 5} The calculation of the prevalence of food insecurity by gender is possible since data is collected from individual respondents (adults aged 15 years or older)

According to FAO data (2023), 57 percent of the gender gap may be explained by disparities in education, full-time employment and participation in the labour force. FIGURE 9 illustrates that the gap in moderate or severe food insecurity is higher in Latin America and the Caribbean than in other regions. Globally, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in women exceeded the prevalence in men by 2.4 percentage points in 2022, while in the region this difference was 9.1 percentage points.

Due to the consequences of the pandemic, the gap in the prevalence of food insecurity between women and men increased considerably, which was observed in the period 2020–2021 at both the global and regional level. In 2022, despite showing a reduction compared to the previous year of 2.4 percentage points, the gap in the region is still higher than it was before the pandemic, which affected women's income and economic activities to a greater degree. In 2019, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 6.2 percentage points higher for women than men, while in 2022, this difference was 9.1 percentage points (TABLE 6).

In South America, the gap in the prevalence of food insecurity between women and men in 2022 was 9.6 percentage points, while in Mesoamerica it was 9.2 percentage points. In the Caribbean the difference was much lower at 3.9 percentage points.

Furthermore, the prevalence of severe food insecurity in the region also shows differences between women and men, although the gap is much smaller compared to the difference in moderate or severe food insecurity, reaching 2.6 percentage points in 2022. In South America, this difference was 2.9 percentage points, in Mesoamerica 2.0 percentage points, and in the Caribbean 3.1 percentage points (FIGURE 9).^{6 6} See Table 21 in Annex I

Another example of the effects of inequality on food security and nutrition is shown by the gaps between rural, peri-urban and urban areas. This reality could be explained by disparities in wealth, education, health and non-road infrastructure services across rural and urban areas. At the global level, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity increases as the degree of urbanization decreases.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the difference between rural and urban areas in terms of the proportion of the population facing moderate or severe food insecurity was 8.3 percentage points in 2022, compared to a gap of 7.3 percentage points at the global level. As for the prevalence of severe food insecurity, the gap between rural and urban areas was 4.3 percentage points in the region compared to 3.4 percentage points in the world (TABLE 7) (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023).