A meeting to review a regional plan to ensure food and nutrition security opened here yesterday with officials emphasizing that it should not be another “talk-shop”
”We are taking a holistic approach. It’s not just increasing food production for food security…it has the interest of many different sectors,” Assistant Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Irwin La Rocque said, when quizzed on what makes the Regional Policy for Food and Nutrition Security (RPFNS) different from other policies presented in past years. “A critical aspect of this is an action plan for food and nutrition security.” he said. “We do not want another policy that will sit around. We have to make it actionable and meaningful to all member states.”
The RPFNS will outline guidelines and strategies to secure higher food production; better health and nutrition; income and employment opportunities; and poverty alleviation, among other things. The purpose of the two-day workshop is to review the draft RPFNS, discuss the issues and agree on the nature and scope of policy actions proposed to be taken at national and regional levels in order to address the negative factors constraining the attainment of food and nutrition security. It is being presented to stakeholders, including CARICOM member states, the private sector and other development partners.
Expected results of the workshop include validation of the contents of the draft policy document: identifying gaps, omissions and flaws in the draft document, and amendments to be made; agreement on relationships and linkages between the RPFNS, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Fisheries Policy, the CCH and other relevant CARICOM policies; and agreement on key policy actions and programmes (and their order of priority) to move the region towards improved and sustainable food security within the next 5 years.
La Rocque, who heads the Trade and Integration Unit in the CARICOM Secretariat, said that a series of consultations were done with stakeholders and working groups put together the draft presented yesterday. Following the two-day workshop- being held at the Princess Hotel, once officials have agreed to the policy, there will be another meeting during Caribbean Week of Agriculture in Grenada slated for mid-October. Following this, the Policy will be presented to the Heads of Government for endorsement.
The holistic approach and action plan makes the policy different, La Rocque
said. He said that they anticipate receiving funding for agriculture out of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and food and nutrition security has to be a big component. “So in the past we’ve had these various policies but I don’t think we’ve ever had a very comprehensive and holistic approach to making it actionable and to seek funding for it and I think that’s gonna be a difference,” he emphasized.
He added that a lot will depend on whether development partners continue to assist in this area but they are optimistic that this will happen.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Carib-bean Representative Florita Kentish said that it is essential that national policy formulators, farmers, consumers and all stakeholders be aware of the elements of national food and nutrition security that need to be addressed at the regional level. “National consultations in each member states are the foundations of this process. They will provide the opportunity to fashion recommendations from a broad range of stakeholders for a programme of action to be taken at national and regional levels to implement this strategy firmly anchored within the framework provided by this regional policy,” she said.
“The process is thus the key to ensuring that the actions contemplated in the policy are indeed carried out and that the policy does not remain a list of good intentions for the issues are multi-sectoral and require coordinate action across a broad front: agriculture, health and nutrition, works and infrastructure, finance and the economy, trade and industry, education and information,” Kentish added.
She emphasized the importance of the policy framework, pointing out that it is not only for use within the FAO or CARICOM but for external donor agents and technical assistance agencies. She noted that in the wake of the 2008 food crisis and increasing climatic volatility, the major bilateral and multilateral donors as well as international financing institutions have revised their programmes in support of agricultural development to place them in a food and nutrition security framework.
The region must be cognizant of this, she said. The Policy is the key to tapping these external sources of financial and technical assistance and these are more likely to be forthcoming and more cost-effective in the context of a regional approach, she added. In light of the priorities set in the RPFNS, Kentish explained, the FAO will be revising its regional medium-term priority framework, which is the organisation’s tool for jointly identifying strategic areas for FAO assistance to achieve national and regional food and agricultural development objectives.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said that relevant questions include what has the region done over the last few years—during which it has been repeatedly battered by various challenges—to ensure that the agriculture sectors are robust to these shocks. “What have we done to ensure that we take advantage of the opportunities that are opening globally?” He noted the current surge in prices for commodities such as wheat. “If we cannot produce these commodities efficiently, how have we made sure that we’re able to export other agricultural commodities that will give us the required foreign exchange earnings that we can use to pay for the increased prices?”
Persaud said that Guyana has been investing heavily in its agriculture sector. He explained that the country has been making efforts towards modernization and restructuring the traditional sector and, at the same time, has been working with donor partners in rolling out several packages worth of dedicated projects aimed at supporting the non-traditional agriculture sector.
These packages overall are worth US$50M, Persaud said, adding that the efforts are bearing fruit.
Further, he said, Guyana has started to develop a 10-year food and nutrition security strategy, which will not only allow the country to address the issue of food availability but access to affordable and nutritious food and also to ensure stability as well. “But with the exception of Guyana and a handful of countries in CARICOM, I’m yet to see decisive action and coordination at the political level and that together with seeming institutional weaknesses and inadequate coordination between member states and the CARICOM Secretariat is what has kept the region from comprehensively and decisively addressing the key binding constraints identified in the Jagdeo Initiative,” the Minister said.
He declared that the workshop “cannot just be another talk-shop producing endless amount of papers that end up on dusty shelves.” He added, “We must recognise that the talk is over now.”
Persaud said that the RPFNS successfully addresses some of the key factors affecting food security in the region but the workshop must go over the document again and ensure that all the key areas of concerns have been adequately addressed. He identified the continued reliance of food imports—which have been increasing—as an area of concern and said that the strategy must work towards removing barriers the region faces in international trade and take into account the socio-economic impacts.
Other areas of concern are the region’s people “unhealthy and costly taste” and climate change, Persaud said. He said that the policy must help deliver food security not just in three or five years time but also set the foundation for long term, sustainable agricultural development models. He said that the region cannot afford to invest in a strategy that will be outdated in a few years time.
Another area of concern, he said, is the institutional and business model. “We must link more closely with the private sector and consider the whole value chain while integrating our approaches to land, water management, trade, transportation and distribution, employment creation and improving our business environment,” the Minister said. “The most area of concern is looking at why such attempts in the past have not worked. I want to know how this strategy will drive forward the Jagdeo Initiative and address not only the key constraints identified under the Initiative but also the constraints that exist in delivering on it. Unless it does so, it will be another futile effort and a waste of our time no matter how well written and articulated, no matter how good its proposals are,” he added.
