CARICOM Heads of Government have urged the group’s Georgetown-based Secretariat to accelerate its efforts in the mobilisation of resources towards the achievement of the 25 by 2025 food initiative.
Under the initiative CARICOM countries have vowed to cut food imports by 25% by 2025 and each country is supposed to work on their own plans.
The CARICOM Heads met in The Bahamas from February 15th to February 17th and the initiative – which Guyana has lead responsibility for was discussed.
The communique issued from the meeting yesterday said that Heads received an update on progress by the CARICOM Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security (MTF) and approved its priority activities for this year.
Heads also commended the Lead Head of Government with responsibility for agriculture and agriculture development in the quasi-cabinet, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali for his leadership on the agri-foods system agenda.
The communique said that the Heads backed the project proposal entitled “Building Food Security through Innovation, Resilience, Sustainability and Empowerment” which was presented by President Ali. Heads also accepted a pledge of US$2m from Guyana towards financing and implementing the project.
They mandated the MTF to oversee the gathering of resources for the project and its implementation. While calling on the CARICOM Secretariat to up its efforts in the mobilisation of resources to achieve the initiative, the Heads also requested the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation to push the pace of implementation of their various agricultural investment projects.
The calls by the Heads would suggest that the region is not well on the way to meeting the target.
Georgetown is yet to publish specific targets to be met in cutting its food exports by 25% by 2025.
