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