UN says Dominican Republic reduces hunger: EFE

Rome.- UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) general director Jose Graziano da Silva on Wednesday said Latin America shows that social protection developed by the region is an ally to reduce world hunger, EFE reports.

The report names Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as reducing malnutrition rates in the period covered by the report.

"We’ve learned from Latin America that social protection helps a lot (to combat hunger)," said Da Silva in FAO’s report on the state of food insecurity, released by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP).

It reveals that Latin America’s malnutrition prevalence fell from 13.9% in 1990-1992 to less than 5% in 2014-2016, while the number of undernourished people fell from 58 million to less than 27 million.

"Latin America has far exceeded both the first target of the Millennium Development Goals and the World Food Summit (WFS)," the report said referring to the UN’s two goals of halving the proportion of people who suffer hungry and malnourished people.

According to the UN overall progress in the region stems from "the good overall economic performance, steady growth of agricultural production and the successful implementation of social protection policies."