Poverty will rise from 7.6% to 12.7% in Ecuador according to the World Food Program

The pandemic has generated a food crisis in Latin America and would promote migration.

The World Food Program (WFP) announced that as a result of the pandemic, the food situation is becoming dramatic in some Latin American countries, including Ecuador.

The entity revealed that 16 million people in Latin America may be in a situation of acute food insecurity (the stage prior to starvation). And it foresees that almost 12 million more people will join with respect to what was estimated before the coronavirus emergency.

According to the organization, extreme poverty in our country will go from 7.6% to 12.7% in the coming months due to difficulties in eating properly.

Brazil is also on that list and is expected to change from 5.5% to 9.8% and Colombia from 10.3% to 14.3%.

This organization that is part of the United Nations, projects in a new study that 270 million people in the world have difficult and restricted access to basic foods, compared to 149 million at the beginning of this year.

Tomson Phiri, spokesperson for the Program, pointed out that restrictions on mobility, trade and economic activity (as a result of measures to curb the pandemic) are causing a global recession

The report mentions that the increase in food insecurity in Latin America will have as main causes the loss of income for millions of families and the fall in the remittances they received from relatives who worked abroad.

The report was also executed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and states that of those who participated in the study, 78% of households with a relative who worked in another country received a remittance and for 40% of these families it was the only source of income.

The decrease in money transfers is already a reality, but it is believed that this situation will worsen by the end of 2020, although everything indicates that the most difficult will be experienced in 2021, when remittances could be reduced by 8.1%.

Globally, remittances rose to USD 100 billion in 2019.

Regarding migration issues, the entity explains that there are 11 million migrant workers in Latin America. As a result of an interview, the Program determined that many migrants only eat once a day.