COVID-19 and Food Insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The objective was to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity (FI) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analysis was performed using the waves 1 to 3 of the 2020 COVID-19 High Frequency Phone Surveys in 13 LAC countries. The countries with the highest FI in the first wave were Honduras (60.3%), Peru (58.1%) and Ecuador (57.9%). Likewise, the countries with the greatest differences in the prevalence of FI between the first and last waves in percentage points (PP) were Peru (−29), Guatemala (−27.7) and Bolivia (−21.8). LAC countries face a great burden of FI.