Strengthening of Governance policies needed as… 58% of region’s populace overweight, 140 million obese – FAO, PAHO/WHO

Jan 26, 2017 News

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The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) yesterday presented their new joint report: “The Panorama of Food and Nutrition Security in the Americas Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The report notes that while hunger and malnutrition have declined in recent decades, there is a worrying trend of rising obesity and overweight.
To address this situation, FAO and PAHO called for the development of healthy and sustainable food systems that link agriculture, food and nutrition and health. They also called for the strengthening of governance polices; the need to impose nutrition education; and the urgent strengthening of the governance framework for food and nutrition – stressing that commitment is required from all aspects of society to end hunger and malnutrition within the region.
During the presentation yesterday at the Ministry of Agriculture, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive and Regent Street, Georgetown, the FAO’s local representative, Reuben Robertson, emphasised the need for sensitisation and creating awareness.
“We want to call on the Government, the Opposition, the Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), the private sector and the faith-based organisations since everyone is impacted by the report. The publication points to some worrying statistics which show trends in the Caribbean that we ought to be cognisant of, and to take the necessary actions to address.”
Roberson dubbed some of the findings as “troubling” as he divulged some of the results to the media yesterday.
“Close to 360 Million people – around 58 percent of the inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean – are overweight,” he reported.
Figures seen by this publication indicate that the highest rate was observed in the Bahamas (69 percent), Mexico (64 percent) and Chile (63 percent).
Robertson stated that with the exception of Haiti (38.5 percent), Paraguay (48.5 percent) and Nicaragua (49.4 percent), overweight affects more than half of the population of all countries within Latin America and the Caribbean.
OBESITY AND WOMEN, CHILDREN
With respect to obesity, the report shows that 23 percent or 140 million are estimated to be obese.
“What is even more worrying is that the statistics have shown an alarming trend with women…The increased incidence of obesity has disproportionately impacted women in more than 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is disheartening and discouraging to state that the rate of obesity is 10 percent points higher in women than is recorded in men in the region.”
Overweight and obesity is not just a problem amongst the adult population, Robertson said while pointing out that it is also considerable among children.
“The report shows that an estimated 3.9M children under five years old are obese in the region with 2.5M in South America and 1.3M in Central America,”

DOUBLE BURDEN
The representative pointed out that with 58 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean being overweight, 23 percent being obese, 5.5 percent undernourished and with 34 million people unable to access the food types that they require for healthy and active lifestyles, means that the region faces a double burden of malnutrition.
“This double burden of malnutrition in the region is what we are asking and bringing to the attention of our policy makers that Government and all stakeholders need to introduce methods to address all forms of hunger and malnutrition by improving governance and linking food security, sustainability, agriculture and nutrition and health” Robertson stressed.
He lamented that over the last two decades, there has been a change in consumption patterns which can be attributed to positive economic growth – in most countries – resulting in a spin-off in increased incomes to families; improved standards of living; reduced poverty; access to international communities and markets; and the foreign influence of the media.
“We have moved away from the traditional healthy foods; fresh provisions, fruits and vegetables. We have developed a diet for highly processed foods, fast and junk foods high in salts, sugars and fats. We have moved into what is called more sedentary lifestyles with little or no exercise.”
RECOMMENDATIONS
The report he pointed out, also contains recommendations aimed at reversing this trend with the most important one being: “We have to go back to the basics,”
“We have to go back to eating healthy. We have to change our current consumption patterns or our diets, ensure that we eat healthy and balanced diets, promote and transform to healthy food systems that makes them sustainable and sensitive to nutrition; we need to strengthen our Government and governance polices; we need to impose nutrition education more within our societies and most importantly, we need to strengthen the governance framework for food and nutrition to end hunger and malnutrition,”
Local representative of PAHO/WHO, Dr. William Adu-Krow, spoke about the need for comprehensive policies and strategies for food and nutrition security; the strengthening of family farming; combating poverty and extreme poverty particularly in rural areas; intra-regional and domestic trade for food and nutritional security.
He added that WHO began sounding the alarm in 1990s, spearheading a series of discussion panels to look at the issue of nutrition security and insecurity and obesity. Public Awareness campaigns were also initiated then to sensitise policy makers, private sector partners, and medical professionals amongst others.
“We are also aware that obesity is predominantly a social and environmental disease and therefore, it is not only a health issue and not only an agricultural issue – it is an all-sector issue,”
Dr. Adu-Krow said that there are still about 37 million in the region who suffer hunger on a daily basis – persons who don’t have the right quality and the right quantity of food.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, George Jervis, said that the Ministry is set to unveil this year, a series of programmes aimed at reviving family farms in areas such as Buxton, Ithaca, Beterverwagting and Triumph.
Similar projects, he said, will be carried out in several hinterland regions aimed at Sustainable Agriculture Development which will see the development of research stations and collaborations between Government and farmers to improve their traditional activities in the communities in terms of livestock and traditional crops.
He spoke also about the development of abattoirs and the Ministry’s ongoing engagement with the Islamic Bank for the establishment of a milk value-chain.
“The Ministry of Agriculture is focused on rolling out a menu of projects and activities that will see food and nutrition security coming almost by default,” Jervis told the gathering.

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