Discussing parliamentary responses to the impact of COVID-19 on hunger and malnuitrition in Latin America and the Caribbean

Members of Parliament from Latin America and Europe  held a virtual meeting today on ways to strengthen cooperation on hunger and malnutrition, especially in light of the added suffering caused by COVID-19. They included Member of European Parliament (MEP) Javi López, who is also the co-chair of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat); Jairo Flores, Guatemalan Member of Parliament, and Regional Coordinator for the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger for Latin America and the Caribbean; Pepa Gonzalez Bayo, Member of the Spanish Alliance for the Right to Food; and the Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels, Rodrigo de Lapuerta. They were joined by other FAO staff from the Brussels and Santiago del Chile offices.

The discussions focused on parliamentary responses from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. In their letter dated 1 April 2020, 500 legislators from over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean called on countries to keep food supply chains alive and take action to ensure that the most vulnerable populations will continue to have access to sufficient and adequate food.

One of the key concerns is the impact of school closures on school meals, which are vital to children’s nutrition. Some 85 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean rely on school meals. For about 10 million of them, those meals are the only source of safe, nutritious food which they receive on a daily basis.

Eurolat Co-Chair Javi López underlined the risk of undoing the progress made in the fight against poverty and hunger in previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Global solidarity will be instrumental to address this challenge,” he said.

In addition to his other roles, MEP López has also joined the European Parliamentary Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition, becoming the 30th Member of the Alliance.