Eradicating Hunger Quickly: Scaling up Hunger Free Programs
José Graziano Da SilvaBeijing, October 2007
After stagnating in 1997-2002, poverty and indigence rates have fallen sharply in recent years, yet the percentage of people living in poverty is still close to the 1980 figure.
LATIN AMERICA : TRENDS IN POVERTY AND INDIGENCE, 1990-2006(Percentages)
18,6 22,519,0 18,5 19,4 16,9 15,4 14,7
40,548,3
43,5 43,8 44,0 42,0 39,8 38,5
010
203040
5060
1980 1990 1997 1999 2002 2004 2005 2006 b/
Pe
rce
nta
ge
Indigent Non-indigent poor
Source: ECLAC, on the basis of special tabulations of data from national household surveys.
b/ Includes indigentes more poor no indigents
Between 2002 and 2005, the number of poor and indigent population declined by 12 and 16 million persons. This
might show a change in trend, but now there are still more poor people than in 1980.
LATIN AMERICA: POVERTY AND INDIGENCE, 1990-2006(Millions of people)
62
93 89 89 9788 81 79
136
200 204 211221 217 209 205
0
50
100
150
200
250
1980 1990 1997 1999 2002 2004 2005 2006 b/
Mill
ion
s
Indigent Non-indigent poor
Source: ECLAC, on the basis of special tabulations of data from national household surveys.
b/ Includes indigentes more poor no indigents
Reasons for the progress made towards the target: higher growth, increasing employment and rising
per capita social expenditureLAC (21 COUNTRIES): SOCIAL EXPENDITURE
AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP IN 1990-1991, 1996-1997 AND 2002-2003(Percentages)
5.5 5.7 6.5 7.1 7.4 8.0 8.8 9.0 9.610.5
11.713.1 13.5 13.6
14.813.1
15.1
17.318.6 19.1 19.4
20.9
29.2
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
Trin
idad
and
Tob
ago
Ecu
ador
Gua
tem
ala
El S
alva
dor
Dom
inic
an R
epub
lic
Per
u
Nic
arag
ua
Par
agua
y
Jam
aica
Mex
ico
Ven
ezue
la (
B.R
.)
Hon
dura
s
Col
ombi
a
Bol
ivia
Chi
le
Sim
ple
aver
age
Wei
ghte
d av
erag
e
Pan
ama
Cos
ta R
ica
Bra
zil
Arg
entin
a
Uru
guay
Cub
a
Soc
ial e
xpen
ditu
re a
s a
perc
enta
ge o
f G
DP
1990-1991 1996-1997 2002-2003
Source: ECLAC, on the basis of special tabulations of data from national household surveys.
Gini index map from WorldPolicy.org
World Map Gini coefficient
Undernourishment in figuresUndernourishment in figures
REGION
1990-92 2002-04* Variation rate
Population
(millions) %
Population
(millions) %
Population
(millions)
Percentage points
TOTAL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 823.1 20 830.0 17 6.9 -3
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 59.4 13 52.1 10 -7.3 -3
Mexico 4.6 5 5.3 5 0.7 0
Central America 5.0 17 7.5 19 2.5 2
Caribbean 7.7 27 6.8 21 -0.9 -6
South America 42.0 14 32.5 9 -9.5 -5
Source: FAO SOFI 2006
The number of people suffering from undernourishment declined from 59 to 52 million between 1990 and 2002-2004. Even so,
projections indicate that 40 million people will still be undernourished in 2015.
Source: FAO 2006
46
-127
-75
0
0
17
20
33
33
36
46
47
50
58
71
77
83
100
124
129
129
143
-15
-19
-40
-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200
LAC
Venezuela
Guatemala
Argentina
Panamá
Dominicana, República
Honduras
México
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Paraguay
Costa Rica
Bolivia
Trinidad y Tabago
Colombia
Ecuador
Haití
J amaica
Suriname
Brasil
Chile
Guyana
Cuba
Uruguay
Perú
Target 2015
Statistics on Undernourishment and malnutrition for Latin America and Caribbean
Source: a/ Datos de Food Security Statistic 2007 FAOb/Este índice se calculó como la razón entre la oferta de energía alimentaria (Kca/persona/día) y el requerimiento mínimo promedio per-capita (2200 kca/persona/día). Valores mayores a 1 significa superávit y menores a 1 déficit.
Population (millons) %MUNDO 1,28 861,6 14PAÍSES EN DESARROLLO 1,21 830 17AMÉRICA LATINA Y CARIBE 1,31 52,1 10América del Norte 5,3 5México 1,44 5,3 5América Central 7,5 19Costa Rica 1,28 0,2 5El Salvador 1,16 0,7 11Guatemala 1,01 2,8 22Honduras 1,06 1,6 23Nicaragua 1,04 1,5 27Panamá 1,05 0,7 23Caribe 6,8 21Cuba 1,51 n.s. <2.5Dominicana 1,03 2,5 29Haití 0,96 3,8 46Jamaica 1,23 0,2 9Trinidad y Tabago 1,28 0,1 10América del Sur 32,5 9Argentina 1,33 1,2 3Bolivia 1,01 2 23Brasil 1,41 13,1 7Chile 1,30 0,6 4Colombia 1,17 5,9 13Ecuador 1,21 0,7 6Guyana 1,27 0,1 8Paraguay 1,15 0,9 15Perú 1,17 3,3 12Suriname 1,24 0 8Uruguay 1,33 n.s. <2.5Venezuela 1,06 4,7 18
Dietary Energy Supply
Index 2002-2004a,bUndernourishment 2002-2004 (%)a
Source: UNICEF 2006
Chronic child undernourishment in LAC
Talla/Edad -2SD, niños menores 5 años
49
2926 26
2320 19 18 16
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
9 millions of children
A country case: Hunger Zero,Brazil
Lessons learned:1. Emergency=Conditional Cash Transfers -
Bolsa Familia2. Promoting small-scale agriculture3. Eradicating hunger; emergency program;
food security; legal and policy framework4. Combine emergency actions with
structural changes
Fome Zero
5. Territorial approach needs concrete actions at national, provincial and local level
6. Local, regional and national coordination
7. Social participation in the monitoring of the programmes
8. Interface with press and other media 9. Allocation of necessary public
resources10. Monitoring and evaluation
Recommendations
1. Have an all-embracing goal: Everybody is affected. State Policy
2. Mobilize multiple stakeholders3. Link hunger eradication with social
stability & economic growth 4. Unique beneficiary data base5. Link conditional cash transfers with
schemes to support small-scale agriculture
Conclusions
1. Eradicating hunger required to meet the MDGs and accelerate progress towards social cohesion
2. Hunger eradication should be the first priority of a wide programme of poverty alleviation
Conclusions cont
3. Political commitment needs a clear goal to eradicate hunger
4. Eradicating hunger demands State Policy and not only government action
5. Eradication child undernourishment by 2015 may be an appropriate intermediate goal for LAC
José Graziano Da Silva
Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean
Food And Agriculture Organization, FAO
CONFERENCE ON “TAKING ACTION FOR THE WORLD’S
POOR AND HUNGRY PEOPLE”
Beijing, China- Octubre 17-19, 2007Beijing, China- Octubre 17-19, 2007