Policy brief: Development of urban and peri-urban agro-ecological agriculture, a measure to mitigate food insecurity in school-age children in Latin America

Food insecurity is defined as the “impossibility of not being able to buy enough food or nutritious food for general health and well-being”. According to PAHO, this problem has evidenced an increase in the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, which led to the fact that between 2019 and 2021 the number of hungry people in the region has increased by 13.2 million, reaching a total of 56.5 million hungry people in 2021. This situation has affected the population in general, including school children. Faced with this problem, the implementation of a single isolated public policy would not allow a definitive solution, so it must be approached from multiple aspects in order to mitigate the impact of this on society. A clear example is the measure carried out in Colombia, which consisted of a Protocol for urban and peri-urban agroecological agriculture in public spaces. In this way, a single public health measure was obtained with an environmental, population and economic impact, which can be developed to mitigate food insecurity in schoolchildren.