Try as one might, it is difficult for us in the Caribbean to ignore the still significantly unfinished business of creating a regional food security dome under which to house the broader developmental ambitions of a region constantly seeking to distance itself from the blanket of poverty that groups some other countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, particularly, though not exclusively, together. The Caribbean, truth be told, is by no means one of those baskets from which we get news of people dying of hunger, though we can hardly set aside the fact that over the past few years we have had more than sufficient warning from entities like the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agricul-ture Organization (FAO) that our food security bona fides are not what they ought to be.
The 2.8 million estimate of the number of people in the English-speaking Caribbean deemed by the WFP in 2022 to be under a food security threat, based on the results of a survey undertaken by CARICOM and the WFP was one of the key developments that triggered the regional food security undertaking in that year. The fact is, however, that while the response to this development had led us to believe that the region was about to throw itself into an animated emergency initiative designed to roll back the message that those numbers were sending us, we have had no indication that the regional food security undertaking launched in the wake of the WFP warning has had any significant effect in terms of meaningfully lifting the food security threat.
Here one might add that what has been conspicuously absent is any kind of periodic assessment of how the more acutely food-insecure countries in the region have been faring in these difficult times, and perhaps more importantly, what particular immediate emergency initiatives are being undertaken to bring some measure of alleviation to their individual crises. Here, it could be said that while the hoped-for timeframe of 2025 for a 25% reduction of extra-regional food imports has been tossed around in the fashion of a diligent sales pitch, here again no ‘numbers’ have been placed on the table to allow for a reliable incremental assessment of where we are, a matter of a mere seven or so months away from the timeframe set for meaningful official disclosure on the 25 x 2025 food import reduction target.
The fact of the matter is that the issue of regional food security has not, as far as we know, really ‘taken off’ to the point of beginning to show signs of reducing the numbers of the food insecure in some parts of the region, at least as far as we have been told. In that context, there is no reason to believe, where many of the smaller, less food-secure countries of the region are concerned, the extent of their dependence on extra-regional food imports has been reduced. Nor can the region’s reported already worrying food security bona fides be separated from the pointed warnings about 2024 “shaping up to be a year of climate extremes in the Caribbean,” be left out of the food security equation. This, particularly since across the Caribbean, inclement weather can only render an already worrisome food security situation worse by further retarding the yield of the region’s agriculture sector.
Nor, it seems, is there any likelihood of a ‘breathing space’ between now and what the Caribbean Regional Climate Centre says is likely to be a period to be characterized by “frequent and intense shower activity” which it asserts “could result in high potential for flooding, flash floods, cascading hazards and associated impacts.” All of this is bad news for the region’s immediate-term hope of significantly improving its food security bona fides through the efforts of its agriculture sector. As the OECD so aptly puts it on its Knowledge Platform on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development, “breaking down the silos that separate policy sectors is necessary in order to overcome inconsistencies and promote cross-sectorial synergies for achieving food security (SDG 2), while at the same time contributing to other SDGs.” It adds, tellingly, that “ensuring food security also calls for a coherent approach among stakeholders at local, national, regional and international levels.”
Whether or not the region has fully embraced a collective food security strategy that speaks to the particular needs of the different groupings of countries comprising CARICOM remains open to question. Indeed, as reported previously in this newspaper, there are clear indications that, seized of their own immediate and particular food security emergencies, there may well be some countries in the region (here the numbers are unclear) that are showing signs of wanting to go down their own chosen road insofar as pursuing their food security options. One might have thought that the collective way forward would have reposed in the strict adherence by the region, as a whole, to a single, all-embracing regional food security initiative, an understanding that appeared to have been agreed upon more than three years ago but which has lost momentum on account of the protracted delay in realizing set targets. What has also blighted the initiative is the absence by regional leaders, through the CARICOM machinery, to provide the people of the region with any comprehensive, updated reports on exactly where we have been at any point in time and where we are at this time.
Certainly, this circumstance ought not to obtain at a time when, across significant swathes of the globe, food security would appear to have significantly worsened in a maze of internal and international conflicts and where our own regional food security undertaking would appear to be plodding along on feet of clay. As this newspaper has repeatedly said, previously, it is for the designated regional ‘lead’ Heads to clear the rubble away and get the food security train back on track. Their pointed and mind-boggling seeming indifference to this issue is not what we expect of our regional leaders, particularly on an issue of such compelling magnitude.
