Even as Hurricane Beryl declared its destructive intentions early in what had, for weeks, been projected as a destabilizing hurricane season for the Caribbean, the World Food Programme (WFP), USA had declared its preparedness to support the global body’s emergency response efforts in pursuit of what it seemingly anticipated would have added significantly to the pre-existing food security challenges that have already been impacting on the region. With Beryl now having thrown down its own seeming ‘no nonsense’ gauntlet to what is the first hurricane in the region this year – which is expected to significantly impact multiple countries, the U.N. World Food Programme’s Caribbean office is on standby as are the various U.N. World Food Programme teams in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba.
The United Nations on Wednesday offered its support to the countries of the region. In a statement, the United Nations said that under the leadership of the Resident Coordinators in the area, the UN is working closely with authorities and its partners to assess and respond to the devastation already inflicted, as well as to prepare in places where Hurricane Beryl is expected to make landfall. The UN is prepositioning teams, with others on standby to deploy as needed.
Given the damage caused by the hurricane, the UN said that US$4 million will be made available from the Central Emergency Response Fund to launch humanitarian operations in Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Secretary-General, in coordination with the affected nations, is considering launching an appeal to address humanitarian needs that have arisen from the impact of Hurricane Beryl.
Caribbean Multi-Country Director designate for the WFP, Brian Bogart was quoted as saying that preparedness is key to mitigating the impact of the hurricane season and that the U.N. World Food Programme is “actively working to support regional and national disaster management agencies to ensure that the people impacted by this storm are able to meet their essential needs and get back on their feet as quickly as possible,” and yet, as the region contemplates the likely impact of Beryl, going forward, the question arises as to whether, too often, we in the Caribbean are, all too frequently, ‘caught out’ on account, said Mr Bogart, of critical preemptive planning that could help mitigate the effects of predictable occurrences, one of which are periods of destructive weather.
Significantly, and taking into account the envisaged devastating effects on lives and livelihoods in the region on account of what is envisaged as the likely longer-term outcomes of Beryl’s tantrums, the U.N. World Food Programme had deployed personnel to Saint Lucia and Grenada to add to the pre-existing ‘boots on the ground’ in Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This allowed for the WFP to collaborate with regional governments and non-governmental organizations such as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) – to strengthen disaster management, social protection, and food systems.
As the effects of Beryl’s anticipated further rampage bites deeper into the already fragile responses of Caribbean countries most likely to be targeted, governments in the region must surely be contemplating the likely longer term impact of prevailing hostile weather pattern on food security, already a critical issue in large swathes of the region which is not being helped by the painfully slow pace at which the much vaunted regional food security plan is being rolled out. It will be recalled that more than two years ago, here in Georgetown, CARICOM Heads of Government were queuing up behind a planned Agriculture Investment Forum and Expo which had, back then, been tagged as a precursor to an ambitious regional food security plan designed to spread a protective blanket over the wider Caribbean which had already been tagged as a food-insecure region.
If the regional recognition of the importance of creating a contingency plan to stave off the worst excesses of natural disasters made worse by pre-existing weaknesses is seen as important, the sloth in the pace towards the creation of a regional food security plan tells another story.
Warnings and expressions of concern over the Caribbean’s food security bona fides by the UN and other organizations notwithstanding – the advent of Hurricane Beryl and what, by the end of its rampage is bound to render the region’s food security bona fides even more fragile – will, hopefully, teach us lessons that have to do with taking more seriously than we appear to do at this time, the importance of removing the practice of prevarication from the Caribbean’s development agenda.