According to the FAO, more than 800 million people in the world live on less than 1.90 USD a day. That is 10% of the world population.

690 million people suffer from famine. The Coronavirus pandemic has contributed to increasing this figure, adding between 75 and 95 million more people, according to data from the World Bank.

I believe that inflation will be another negative factor and can have a devastating impact on poor families. An average person in a low-income country spends about 67% of their resources on food, while an average person in a high-income country spends about 25%.

The crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine has also impacted the economies of Latin America. According to a recent report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean -ECLAC-, the countries of the region are facing a slowdown in economic activity, a slow and uneven recovery in labor markets and greater inflationary pressure (especially in food and energy). Situation that will increase the levels of poverty and food insecurity. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean must urgently strengthen their public policies to face this crisis.

According to the report, poverty would increase from 29.8% in 2018 to 33.7% in 2022 and extreme poverty would increase from 10.4% in 2018 to 14.9% this year. This implies that 7.8 million people will be at risk of falling into food insecurity, a figure that would be added to the 86.4 million that currently face this situation in the region.

In my previous blog I mentioned that education is key to reducing poverty. However, the fight against malnutrition and zero hunger are also relevant factors to reduce poverty. It is no coincidence that the International Food and Poverty Eradication Days are celebrated on consecutive dates (October 16 and 17).

Sustainable Development Goal #1, which aims to reduce the global poverty rate to less than 3% by 2030, will be impossible to achieve, given current conditions, unless countries take swift and significant action.

It is the responsibility of governments, businessmen and citizens to help improve human development indices by lowering rates of malnutrition, low schooling, etc.

Companies can join forces to help lower these rates. It is not enough to pay minimum wages, but it is necessary to pay fair wages that guarantee the maintenance of a family in a dignified manner. Programs can also be implemented, hand in hand with local actors, to bring development to communities and empower their inhabitants.

At AgroAmerica we have made efforts in the countries where we operate (Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama) to contribute to the reduction of poverty and zero hunger. For several years we have been carrying out studies to pay decent wages to our workers. We have an alliance with the University of Colorado to carry out nutrition and training programs for mothers to help them improve their family’s nutrition, especially for children from 0 to 5 years old. We also support schools near the company’s operations (Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru); we donate bananas for the children’s daily snack, given the nutritional properties of the fruit. More recently, we joined the Great National Crusade for Nutrition in Guatemala, which seeks to reduce malnutrition rates in the country and provide access to healthy and nutritious food.

I am glad to share the 2021 Sustainability Report of AgroAmerica for those who were interested in learning about our programs or replicating them. It will be a pleasure to help you and share the lessons learned.

Individually, we can also contribute to reach the goal. Here are some ideas that come to mind:

• Volunteer with institutions that help eradicate poverty.

• Donate time to train groups of people who cannot afford to go to college, such as resume writing, job interview preparation, IT, finance, etc.

• Promote the debate of these issues on social networks to seek solutions and generate actions.

I invite you to come up with more ideas and to continue thinking on possible local and global solutions, so that governments, companies, and citizens can be part of the change in 2030.