By jeopardizing households’ purchasing power, food production and supply chains, as well as national response capacities, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased food insecurity. Across Latin America and the Caribbean – the region that incurred the highest relative increase of people in severe food insecurity, from 4.3 million in 2019 to 17.1 million by August 2020 – refugees and migrants from Venezuela are among those most affected, particularly women, including female-headed households and children.

With their income highly dependent on livelihoods tied to the informal sector and/or remittances, having access to a more limited local support network and being largely excluded from underfunded national safety nets, Venezuelan refugees and migrants saw their food security status deteriorate since the pandemic began.

The state of food security among refugees and migrants, combined with the particularly diverse nutritional needs of children, pregnant and lactating women, girls and the elderly in all household types, represent the main challenge for the Sector.

Regional activities will focus on strengthening sectoral coordination and information management to fill gaps between R4V partners in harmonized planning, food security assessments, monitoring and reporting, as well as resource mobilization and advocacy, with gender-sensitive response targeting and programme design.

A response spanning expanded programmatic approaches

The acute food security needs caused by losses of income and access to basic services during the pandemic – particularly among women and children – have prompted partners to increase initiatives targeting immediate and urgent food needs in a gender- and age-responsive manner. Other activities will seek to address the quality of diet among refugees and migrants. Finally, partners will seek to facilitate the inclusion of refugees and migrants in existing social protection programmes via pilot projects, advocacy efforts and technical assistance.

A response prioritizing cash and voucher assistance

The RMRP 2021 budget for food security activities prioritizes cash and voucher assistance (CVA), aiming to maximize the welfare of beneficiaries and accommodate their consumption preferences.