Policy Support and Governance Gateway

Latin America and the Caribbean

The LAC region was the first to commit to eradicating hunger by 2025. As a result, it has seen hunger rates decrease significantly in the last 20 years. But countries are struggling to contain the increase in diet-related non-communicable diseases, as they overwhelm health systems and undermine economic productivity. Natural resources are declining and half of the rural population lives in poverty. The region must transform its food systems to be more sustainable and resilient.

Resilience through food system transformation.

Advancing economic, social and environmental pillars of development is central to FAO's technical support to the member states. FAO formulates guidelines to monitor food security, promotes family farming and rural development, and works with communities to build resilience to climate and financial shocks.

In the region, FAO is strengthening its operational model to promote innovation, thus helping to address the trade-offs between the SDGs and contribute to the achievement of national priorities for the 2030 Agenda.   

Key policy messages

·         Promote healthy diets and make them accessible to the entire population. Possible actions include increasing productivity and diversifying production, especially fruits and vegetables, expanding international trade, improving food safety, regulating food advertisement, and educating the public to develop healthier eating habits.

·        Build prosperous rural territories by implementing inclusive and comprehensive rural development agendas, while maintaining progress on poverty and hunger reduction. Initiatives such as "100 territories free of poverty and hunger (100T)"  focus on neglected territories that struggle with severe poverty and hunger. 100T promotes political commitment, governance and action in the territories, and engages the private sector and civil society to find innovative solutions to meet SDGs 1 and SDG 2.

·       Transition to climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture by using technological and institutional innovations to increase agricultural production, conserve biodiversity and build resilience to climate shocks. Incorporate climate-related disaster risk management into the framework of agriculture and natural resources management by working with small producers and strengthen food production systems. 

·        Transform the agricultural sector to enhance food and nutrition security, increase access to employment, income and productive assets. This cannot happen without reducing inequalities and closing the gender gap. It is also essential to work closely with the private sector and promote South-South and triangular cooperation.

·        Improve land governance to strengthen the resilience of the region, its business and investment climate and thus generate greater benefits for all its productive sectors and especially for its most vulnerable populations and the most backward sectors. 

Featured regional publications and tools