Against an international backdrop marked by wars, climate crises, food-price inflation and declining development resources, Latin America and the Caribbean are sending a message that the world needs to hear: hunger can be reduced when there is political will, institutional continuity and a coordinated set of public policies.
On September 23, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty held the high-level event “Four Years Left: Accelerating Action on Hunger and Poverty.” Convened by Brazil and Spain, the Alliance’s co-chairs, the meeting called for renewed political leadership, stronger country-led systems and better-aligned financing to accelerate progress towards the eradication of hunger and poverty by 2030.
The event took place at a particularly significant moment for Latin America and the Caribbean. Five countries in the region — Brazil, Chile, Guyana, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay — now have an estimated prevalence of undernourishment below 2.5%, the statistical threshold used by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to indicate that a country is no longer on the Hunger Map.
Data from “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026″ report confirm this positive trajectory. The prevalence of undernourishment in the region declined from 6% of the population in 2020 to less than 5% in 2025. In absolute terms, the number of people affected by hunger fell from nearly 40 million to 32 million. That represents almost eight million fewer people facing hunger in only five years.
Latin America and the Caribbean, together with Asia, have driven the recent decline in global hunger. Within the region, South America has led the recovery: undernourishment fell from 5.5% in 2020 to 3.5% in 2025. At a time when the world is moving dangerously off track from its commitment to eradicate hunger by 2030, this progress demonstrates that setbacks are not inevitable.
These five countries achieved comparable results through different paths. Chile and Uruguay gradually consolidated relatively comprehensive social protection systems, nutrition policies and strong institutional capacities. The Dominican Republic experienced the most striking transformation: its undernourishment rate, which exceeded 21% at the beginning of this century, is now below 2.5%.
Guyana’s experience deserves particular attention. In addition to reducing undernourishment from 7.1% to below 2.5%, the country was identified by a study published in Nature Food as the only one among 186 countries analysed whose domestic production was sufficient to meet its population’s needs across all seven major food groups considered: fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish, meat, pulses and starchy staples.
This does not mean that Guyana has eliminated all food imports or overcome every challenge related to poverty and inequality. It means that the country has developed an exceptionally diversified productive capacity. Incentives for agricultural production, infrastructure investment, support for farmers and a food-security strategy linked to Caribbean integration all contributed to this outcome. Guyana therefore provides an important reference for the Caribbean — an island-based region that remains heavily dependent on imported food.
Brazil’s experience is particularly instructive. After officially leaving the Hunger Map in 2014, the country returned to it in 2018 following the abandonment and dismantling of key food and nutrition security policies.
As is widely known, Brazil succeeded in leaving the Hunger Map once again in 2024, following the reinstatement of policies that had already proved effective: income transfers, increases in the minimum wage, school meals, public food procurement, support for family farming, and the reconstruction of its National Food and Nutrition Security System.
This rapid turnaround demonstrates the fundamental importance of public policies that combine inclusive economic growth with targeted measures to advance food security and nutrition — especially in a large and deeply unequal country. The experiences of these five countries teach us that no single measure can defeat hunger.
Success requires the coordination of income support, food production and distribution, social participation, and political priority translated into sufficient budgetary resources to ensure that the poorest families can access healthy food.
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They also offer several broader lessons. The first is that economic growth alone does not end hunger. The benefits of growth must reach the most vulnerable families. In other words, the gains generated by economic progress must be distributed more fairly.
The second lesson is that cash-transfer programmes work best when they are combined with other food security and nutrition policies such as school feeding, public food procurement and support for family farming. Income policies create demand, but they must be accompanied by measures that expand the production and availability of healthy food, strengthen local economies and connect small-scale producers with public and institutional markets.
The third lesson is that permanent councils, laws, institutions and budgets are essential to prevent each change of government from dismantling what previous administrations have built. Eradicating hunger requires state policies capable of ensuring continuity regardless of which political party or coalition is in office.
It is also important to emphasise that leaving the FAO/UN Hunger Map does not necessarily mean eradicating hunger. Our ambition cannot be limited to ensuring the minimum number of calories required to avoid undernourishment. Everyone must have access to food that is healthy, diverse, affordable and culturally appropriate.
This means tackling food-price inflation, improving storage facilities and cold chains, expanding the supply of fruits, vegetables and pulses, and protecting vulnerable families from climate shocks. It also means addressing all forms of malnutrition, including overweight and obesity, which are growing rapidly across the region.
The progress celebrated in New York in 2026 does not mean that Latin America and the Caribbean can afford to become complacent. The Caribbean still has an undernourishment rate of 17%. In Haiti, hunger affects more than half of the population, while countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, Suriname and Bolivia continue to record double-digit undernourishment rates. Moreover, 172 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean — more than one-quarter of the region’s population — were still unable to afford a healthy diet in 2025.
Twenty years ago, Latin America and the Caribbean embraced the ambition of becoming a hunger-free region through the “Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger 2025 Initiative,” led by FAO with the support of the Spanish Cooperation Agency.
That goal remains unfinished, but the progress already achieved shows that it was never a utopian aspiration. The region has the knowledge, institutions and practical experience required to enable other countries to win the fight against hunger.
The challenge now is to transform the successful national experiences of Brazil, Chile, Guyana, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay into a lasting regional commitment — one backed by political will, adequate financing and strong institutions capable of preventing future setbacks and ensuring that no one is left behind.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Timothy Cohen
