The document explains that extremes such as droughts, floods and storms have impacts ranging from production to final consumption of food, jeopardizing improvements in hunger and malnutrition in all its forms.

On Monday, January 27, 2025, at 12:00 p.m. Chile / 10:00 a.m. Panama / 10 a.m. Washington, the new Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean will be launched. This report is jointly carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

The report provides a detailed overview of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition indicators in each of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and explains why the prevalence of food insecurity fell below the world average, for the first time in 10 years.

The 2024 edition of the Overview also focuses on building resilience to climate variability and extremes for food security and nutrition. The report seeks to support countries in developing public policies to strengthen the resilience of agri-food systems, allowing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 Zero Hunger. 

The report concludes that 20 countries in the region have high exposure to extremes, while 14 have been defined as vulnerable. When analyzing the affected countries (those that present a combination of both categories), an increase in hunger of 1.5 percentage points is observed, which represents a challenge for the decrease in the prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in the region in the last two years to be a trend to accelerate the fulfillment of the SDG2 target.

The report will be presented at a press conference in which authorities and specialists from the co-publishing agencies of the FSN Overview 2024 will participate. 

WHAT

Launch of the Food Security and Nutrition Regional Overview in Latin America and the Caribbean 2024: building resilience to climate variability and extremes for food security and nutrition.

WHEN 

January 27, 2025, at 12:00 p.m Chile time (UTC-3) / 10:00 a.m in Panama-Washington (UTC-5). 

WHO 

• Mario Lubetkin, Assistant Director General and Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) for Latin America and the Caribbean. 
• Rossana Polastri, Regional Director for the Latin America and the Caribbean Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• María Dolores Castro, Regional Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. 
• Karin Hulshof, Regional Director a.i. for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (to be confirmed)

HOW TO PARTICIPATE 

Journalists interested in the press conference can access the meeting on Zoom and send their questions via chat in real-time or in advance via e-mail.

Media registry here

The press conference will be broadcasted on  FAO’s website in English, Spanish and Portuguese.