Venezuela’s Food Security and Nutrition Crisis
By Andrew Cho
In a joint effort with the Human Rights Watch, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights recently released a report that looked at the available data on the food and nutrition situation in Venezuela. The short version of the current political crisis essentially deals with a crisis in transition of power. Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela from 2013 to 2018, controversially “won” (read: rigged) a second six-year term for presidency; however, the general population rejected his re-election and led to widespread protests erupting. Juan Guidó, the head of the Venezuelan legislature (the Venezuelan National Assembly) declared Maduro’s presidency as illegitimate and declared that he will step in as interim president. The United States and much of Western Europe support Guidó’s regime; however, Maduro still has the support of Russia and China and still has an iron grip on much of Venezuela’s political and military powers. As such, Maduro’s regime still continues in spite of international criticism, and the Venezuelan people are left to deal with the consequences of a country that is dealing with hyperinflation, political turbulence, and diplomatic isolation.
With the hostile political climate and the growing instability, it’s hard to gauge just how bad things are in Venezuela for the people who could not flee the country. However, the current study analyzes the available information obtained through a literature review and through information shared through key informant networks.
Here are the key statistics of note. The inflation rate in Venezuela is the highest in the world, at 1.37 million percent in 2018, with projections for 2019 in excess of 10 million percent (Reuters, 2018). The price of a staple foods has also soared accordingly, leaving many people unable to buy simple foods. As much of 80% of the Venezuelan population is food insecure according to the examined the results of 2017’s National Living Conditions Survey (ENCOVI) from Venezuela. Food insecurity not only extends to access to food but also the deteriorating quality of food; the most recent estimates put 11.7% of Venezuela’s population as undernourished.
While these numbers are devastating and shed some light on Venezuela’s current plight, the true extent of Venezuela’s malnutrition crisis is hard to gauge because no recent nutrition survey data representative of populations at state or national levels is available with common indicator measurements. The NGOs Caritas and the Bengoa Foundation have been monitoring vulnerable communities in Venezuela and both of these organizations observed an increase in acute malnutrition in children and adults.
Finally, hospitals in Venezuela have reported both an increase in the number and proportion of consultations and admissions with acute malnutrition, where 72% of children admitted to emergency care showed some degree of poor nutrition. Much of the data collected from hospitals were hard to interpret as under-reporting is likely; the current political climate fosters fear among healthcare providers to limit reporting of malnutrition cases and deaths.
These numbers illuminate an alarming crisis that will continue to fester if a large, full scale response to this crisis inside Venezuela is not implemented. With the current political climate, how to deliver this response is less clear. While the international public health community deliberates on the matter of delivering large scale responses, small scale assistance to address immediate food security and nutrition needs in the most vulnerable communities should continue.
This report was enabled by the generous support of the Tutu Endowment.
You can read the full report here and watch the Human Rights Watch conference on the current Venezuelan crisis here.
