The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) says that rural poverty in the Dominican Republic fell from 24% in 2014 to 9.5% in 2019. This is more than half in five years. Carmelo Gallardo, FAO representative in the Dominican Republic, shared the statistic before his participation in the 29th FAO Meeting of the Regional Commission on Agricultural Statistics and Food Security for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The indicator for Latin America and the Caribbean has also declined significantly. “Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world that, with the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), halved hunger by 2015,” said Gallardo. This indicator was around 15% in 2004, and is currently around 6% or 7%, said the FAO representative.
Gallardo said that reducing poverty in the country by more than 50% in 15 years is “everyone’s achievement,” but “don’t neglect yourselves, because when a strong crisis comes, it’s easy to go back.”
Gallardo also had grim news for the Dominican Republic. “The drought, in my opinion, has come to stay. Long periods of drought, unfortunately, are part of the consequences of climate change and we have to adapt,” Gallardo told reporters before participating in FAO conference in Santo Domingo.
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El Dia
Listin Diario
19 September 2019