International
Severe or moderate food insecurity is low but affects 26% of households in Colombia
Serious or moderate food insecurity in Colombia decreased in 2023 compared to 2022, but continues to affect more than a quarter of the country’s households, while serious food insecurity has hardly changed and continues to affect 4.8% of households, according to data published this Friday by the Colombian Government and the FAO.
The director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), Piedad Urdinola, revealed at a press conference that severe or moderate food insecurity “fell from 28.1% to 26.1%” in 2023, affecting more than 14 million people, while regretting that in severe food insecurity the “variations are very slight,” since it has barely gone from 4.9% of households to 4.8%.
Where severe or moderate food insecurity decreased the most was in the municipal capitals of Colombia (from 26.8% to 24.7%), while in dispersed populated and rural centers the decrease was more moderate (from 32.5% to 31.2%).
In addition, the results show that in the departments with the worst records of hunger or poverty, La Guajira and Chocó, food insecurity has had great decreases, even reaching a reduction of 24.3 percentage points in the Chocó jungle, where severe or moderate food insecurity went from affecting 43.2% of households to 18.9%.
“The report does not present a very encouraging picture for the goal of eradicating hunger by 2030,” admitted the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Colombia, Agustín Zimmermann, although he admitted that there is “political will” and means to reverse the situation.
“Colombia undoubtedly has all the natural resources, the productive capacity, the institutionality, and the human resources to advance this goal,” said the Argentine who emphasized that “the vision of a Colombia without hunger and without malnutrition is within reach.”
The data come from the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) developed by the FAO, published this Friday for the second year in Colombia, which is the largest in Latin America, carried out in more than 86,000 Colombian households.
The data on this scale show results similar to those presented by the World Food Program (WFP) in February that revealed that food insecurity was reduced in 2023 from 30% to 25%, with 13 million people still in moderate or severe food insecurity.
The data, which were included in the National Quality of Life Survey (ECV) of the DANE, show that food insecurity is greater where life situations are most vulnerable, such as when it comes to single-parent households, made up of migrants, where there is no work or with many family members or young children.
Thus, in 2023, severe or severe food insecurity affected 40.7% of households led by a black, Afro, raizal or palenquera person, and 46.3% of indigenous people.
The situation in households led by a Venezuelan migrant is also particularly delicate, since “in households of international migrants in Venezuela, that prevalence goes to 41.6% so we see a very important gap that is replicated in regions,” according to Urdinola, and that contrasts with the 25.4% prevalence in households without migrants.
On the other hand, in households with more than five members, severe or moderate food insecurity reached 37.9% in 2023, while in single parents, food insecurity stood at 31.4%.
Food insecurity affected 32.8% of households with at least one child under 5 years of age, although “we are seeing an improvement from one year to the next,” said the director of DANE, pointing out that in 2022 it was 36.5%.
International
Biden, Trump campaigns set rules for first pre-election debate on CNN
Campaign committees for U.S. President Joe Biden and businessman Donald Trump agreed on Saturday to the rules for their first debate ahead of the November elections, scheduled for June 27 and hosted by CNN: it will last ninety minutes, be audience-free, and feature muteable microphones.
CNN had indicated since its announcement in May that the debate would proceed without an audience, which is Biden’s preferred format.
It was also disclosed that both candidates’ campaign teams accepted a series of other provisions, including the use of identical podiums and the implementation of muteable microphones to enforce speaking times.
“The microphones will be silenced throughout the debate, except for the candidate who has the speaking turn,” CNN specified, adding that hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash “will use all available tools” to “enforce the timing and ensure a civilized discussion.”
The debate will feature 90 minutes of discussion with just two commercial breaks during which campaign teams cannot interact with the candidates, as specified.
Pre-written notes on the set will also be prohibited, but “the candidates will receive a pen, notepad, and a water bottle” for the event.
Biden and former President Trump (2017-2021) agreed to debate twice before the presidential elections on November 5, on June 27 and September 10. The second debate will be organized by ABC News.
International
Florida declares a state of emergency due to severe floods in five southern counties
The Government of Florida declared a state of emergency on Thursday in five southern counties where severe floods have occurred due to the torrential rains that began last Tuesday.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, today issued the order covering Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties, where for now there have been no victims but mainly road flooding, putting drivers and their families at risk.
The state government stressed that tropical humidity will continue to cause heavy scattered rains in southern Florida and that the flood alert will remain in effect throughout this region and the Keys of Florida, a succession of islets in the extreme south of the state.
These storms have also caused tornadoes, highway cuts, suspension of classes and flight cancellations, about 200 this Thursday, at the airports of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Flightaware platform.
Several areas in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale airport were impacted, as well as Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Lauderdale Lakes, where floods forced the cancellation of transport services.
Although the storm subsided this Thursday, several sectors remained underwater, including Hallandale Beach, whose residents today asked for more pumps to evacuate it. In addition, several vehicles remained stranded and some were even submerged.
Meanwhile, the Brightline train had to temporarily close its stations in Miami and Aventura, the two further south, and several universities and schools have suspended classes.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday night, with immediate effect.
International
The IMF approves the disbursement of another 800 million dollars for Argentina
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the eighth revision of the agreement with Argentina, which allows an immediate disbursement of approximately 800 million dollars for the country.
The financial agency indicated in a statement that this disbursement “will support the efforts of the authorities to restore stability and strengthen Argentina’s external viability.”
The total disbursements made under the Fund’s agreement with Argentina amounts to about 41.4 billion dollars.
The IMF stressed that, when completing the review, “the Executive Board considered that the program was firmly on track, with all the quantitative performance criteria until the end of March 2024 met with margins.”
“Non-compliance exementions for a new exchange rate restriction and multiple exchange practices were also approved in the context of some relaxation of the restrictions on the payment of dividends.”
To maintain solid progress, according to the IMF, “it is necessary to improve the quality of fiscal adjustment, to initiate steps towards an improved monetary and exchange policy framework, implement the structural agenda.”
Likewise, “continue efforts to support the most vulnerable, expand political support and ensure agility in the formulation of policies.”
In March 2022, the then Government of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) signed an agreement with the IMF to refinance loans for about 45 billion dollars that the agency had granted to Argentina in 2018, during the presidency of the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
The pact includes quarterly revisions such as the one now surpassed on the level of compliance with demanding goals in terms of fiscal discipline, accumulation of monetary reserves and limits on monetary issuance.
The approval for new disbursements to Argentina by the agency depends on the fulfillment of those goals and the approval of each review, funds that, in turn, the South American country uses to cancel its debt to the entity, which amounted to 40,899 million dollars at the end of 2023.
On Tuesday, the Argentine Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, said that he will negotiate a new program with the IMF after the eighth review of the organization: “From there we will begin to negotiate a new program with them,” he said.
The IMF had highlighted in a statement last May that Argentina reached this eighth review with a “stabilization plan” where it could reach “the first quarterly fiscal surplus in sixteen years,” a “rapid fall in inflation” and “a strong reduction in sovereign risk.”
Argentina had passed this last review in May, but that step had to go through a formal procedure and be approved by the Executive Board of the IMF, something that took place this Thursday, to receive the 800 million.
This eighth review corresponds to the first quarter of 2024, a period marked by the drastic change in economic policy in Argentina after the arrival of Javier Milei to the presidency in December and the implementation of a severe adjustment plan to recover the fiscal surplus this year.
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