Latin America & the Caribbean

Food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) play a vital role in the region’s economies, in global food security, and in the global response to climate change. They operate, however, within a region that has suffered from economic stagnation in recent years. While LAC enjoyed annual growth of 2.1 percent in per capita incomes between 2000 and 2011 as the commodity cycle was trending upward (even with the 2008–2009 global crisis), when the cycle turned downward, per capita growth fell to a meager 0.2 percent per year until 2019. The region's economies experienced the worst eight years since the 1980s, and the stagnation affected political stability in LAC. Then COVID-19 hit. Despite having only about 8 percent of the world’s population, the region recorded more than 30 percent of global COVID-related deaths. Several factors have made LAC particularly vulnerable to the pandemic, including its high level of urbanization, significant income inequality (which also limits access to high-quality health services), informality of labor markets, prevalence of obesity, and the ongoing economic stagnation.