News Home Page Costa Rica Latin America Sections Special Reports Travel/Tourism Real Estate Business Health The Internet Letters Opinion Columnists Leisure EroTica Entertainment The Take! Learn Spanish Photos Editorial Letters Opinion Columnists Public Forum Who We Are About Us Contact Us Advertise with us Subscribe to our Newsletter Links Page     SPECIAL REPORTS - Friday 17 December 2004  < Back   Send this Page To a Friend One of Every Five Children Suffers From Hunger in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru To be poor and indigenous and live in marginal sectors on city edges or in rural zones in the sierra and the altiplano is an almost certain recipe for hunger in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. In the Andean subregion, one of every five children suffers from chronic malnutrition (low height for age between 0-5 years), according to a study presented today by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in Quito, Ecuador. The summary of the document Hambre y desigualdad en los países andinos (Hunger and Inequality in Andean Countries) reveals that 27% of the children in Bolivia, 26% in Ecuador, 25% in Peru and 14% in Colombia suffer this scourge. The study also found that conditions have worsened in recent years. Vulnerable groups live in areas with little access to services such as drinking water and sewage treatment, have little education and in most cases have inherited difficult socioeconomic conditions from their parents and grandparents. This is what is known as the intergenerational chain transmitting inequality. Latin America, however, is rich in food. According to the study, in 24 countries with 530 million inhabitants, enough food was produced in 2002 to feed 1.8 billion people. Thus, hunger and malnutrition are directly related to unequal access to food. This problem is more serious in Andean countries due to geographical and cultural barriers as well as the lack of effective food policies. In any case, hunger and food insecurity are closely linked to extreme poverty, although with their own specific characteristics. Ethnic Groups are More Vulnerable In Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru there are more than 190 different ethnic groups. Indigenous people live mainly in rural areas and 90% are subsistence farmers or work in seasonal jobs, mining and crafts, while the remaining 10% live in tropical zones or dry forests. In both cases they are very vulnerable due to pressure from the expansion of agriculture and large-scale mining. A disproportionate number of Afro-descendents also suffer from malnutrition, whether they live on the coast or in urban areas in Colombia and Peru. The data reveals that in indigenous speaking households half the children are malnourished, which is a much higher average than in households which only speak Spanish. Nonetheless, there are significant differences among groups. The report found that those speaking Quechua in Bolivia and Peru are significantly more vulnerable than the Aymaras. Mothers' education plays a major role. Malnutrition rates for children are 30% to 40% lower when the mother has primary education versus mothers with no education, and falls even more when she has some high school. Some details are also important, however. In Bolivia and Peru, for example, the impact of education is positive among indigenous and non-indigenous people, but is particularly important among the latter, suggesting that education alone is not enough to reduce the opportunity gap separating both groups. Instead, the cultural specificity of food and educational programmes must be reinforced. The study found no significant differences among girls and boys in terms of malnutrition. The issue of water, however, is important, since the incidence of diarrhoea and general malnutrition are higher in households with no access to drinking water and drains. In terms of geographic distribution, children in the countryside, the sierra or the coast have almost double the likelihood of lower height than city children. Children under five years in the high areas of the Andean mountains are the most vulnerable to malnutrition. In Ecuador, the provinces of the sierra (Imbabura, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Chimborazo and Bolívar) also have rates that are up to 50% higher than the rest of the country. In Peru, in the provinces of the sierra (Huacavelica, Cuzco, Pasco, Apurimas, Cajamarca, Huanuco, Ayacucho, Junin and Ancash), chronic malnutrition rates may be up to 53% higher. In the rainforest of the Amazon and Loreto, where rates are highest, they reach 36%. The coast has lower rates, especially Lima and Tacna, but there are rural enclaves with relatively high rates. The geographic differences in Peru are higher than those registered in other countries. In Bolivia, in northern Potosí and Oruro in the altiplano, and Chuquisaca in the valley, indicators also point ot high rates. In the eastern region, Beni and Pando post rates of 25.5%, and among urban areas the most worrisome indicators are those for Cochabamba. There's a significant difference between malnutrition in Colombia and the other three Andean countries. Colombia has the highest rate of urban cases, reflecting the number of displaced persons due to armed conflicts between the government, guerrillas and paramilitary forces, as well as the violence associated with drug trafficking that affects the country. In 2003, ECLAC and WFP joined forces to deal with hunger and malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean through three studies and the holding of regional forums. Last December, they presented the report Pobreza, hambre y seguridad alimentaria en Centroamérica y Panamá (Poverty, Hunger and Food Security in Central America and Panama), and in 2005 they will research conditions in the Caribbean.