Fao In Latin America And The Caribbean 2021

In this report, FAO illustrates the progress in fulfilling the mandate given to us by the Member Countries during 2021. In 2021, Latin American and Caribbean countries proved that even during one of the most demanding periods in recent history, it is possible to drive better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. The results included in this document are important, but partial, examples of our work.

In recent years, various factors have diverted the world off the path to eradicating hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend. Latin America and the Caribbean is no exception. This edition of the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2021: Statistics and Trends reveals a bleak scenario for the future. In 2020, 59.7 million people in the region suffered from hunger, and between 2019 and 2020 the prevalence of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean increased by 2 percentage points. Much of this can be explained by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced the incomes of millions of people in the region. But it is not behind all the setbacks, as the region's hunger figures have been growing for six consecutive years.

The book has been prepared by authors from different international organizations – including FAO, IFPRI, UNCTAD and ECLAC, as well as legislators and academics from prestigious Latin American universities – seeking to foster reflections for the Global Food Systems Summit, to be held in September 2021. It contextualizes the region’s food systems within a post COVID-19 pandemic scenario and raises new challenges (and opportunities) for policy makers, decision makers, the private sector, and the general public. Likewise, it offers important reflections on sustainability, from production to consumption, with the call to promote better governance of the global and regional food system. In order to face what some authors have deemed “the Syndemic of the century”, the participation of companies, research centres, academia, NGOs, government agencies and international organizations will be necessary.

On 23 September 2021, the Food Systems Summit convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, was held. Latin America and the Caribbean played an essential role in this event. The official proposals and recommendations presented at the Summit are part of the official reports of the national dialogues and the speeches of their official representatives. In this publication, we reproduce the transcripts of these 23 speeches. This publication is an invitation to those who want to learn about Latin America and the Caribbean proposals at the Summit.

The Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Synthesis for The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture summarizes the state of biodiversity for food and agriculture in the region, based largely on information provided in fourteen country reports submitted to FAO as part of the reporting process for the report on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture. Biodiversity for food and agriculture is the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms at genetic, species and ecosystem levels, present in and around crop, livestock, forest and aquatic production systems. It is essential to the structure, functions and processes of these systems, to livelihoods and food security, and to the supply of a wide range of ecosystem services. It has been managed or influenced by farmers, livestock keepers, forest dwellers, fish farmers and fisherfolk for hundreds of generations. The report was originally prepared as supporting documentation for an informal regional consultation on the state of Latin America and the Caribbean’s biodiversity for food and agriculture held in Panama City, Panama, 8 to 10 March 2016. It was later revised based on feedback received from the participants of the informal consultation and on an additional country report. It also discusses the state of efforts to promote the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity for food and agriculture in the region, including through the development of supporting policies, legal frameworks, institutions and capacities.

The Gender Strategy proposes to deepen the analysis of the initiatives that achieve changes and - structural transformations - of the unequal relations, emphasizing in the monitoring of the SDGs and the indicators under the mandate of the FAO. Furthermore, the strategy must respond to the challenges of the current context, some of which are in the order of the slowdown in economic growth, the increase in poverty and hunger, demographic changes and in the composition and structure of families and the exhaustion of the current development model, characterized by the increase of inequalities and environmental crises.

The Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well as input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of the prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. The publication consists of 11 Chapters; Chapter 1 covers agricultural and food markets; Chapter 2 provides regional outlooks and the remaining chapters are dedicated to individual commodities.