As CARICOM food security ‘push’ seemingly slows, new multi-agency perspective surfaces
Even as the protracted information blackout of the pace of progress towards the creation of a promised Food Terminal, as one of the key elements of the regional food security undertaking, continues to be a matter of concern to CARICOM member countries, the wider issue of food security in the region is now the subject of a new report pinpointing malnutrition and hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean.
While the focus of the regional response to various earlier high-profile soundings from UN agencies, among others, would appear to have taken CARICOM countries in the direction of treating the challenge as a food sufficiency issue, the more recent report titled ‘Financing Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean,’ asserts that the main problem does not stem from a food shortage, per se, but from a lack of physical and economic access to food especially in rural areas in the region with high levels of poverty. The recent report was prepared jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the the Caribbean (ECLAC), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
If the assertion that resources required to secure access to food and not food sufficiency is indeed the problem, then, assuming that the assertion is accurate, such a development will require the Caribbean to considerably reconfigure its approach to tackling the problem, since the focus of the ongoing regional food security initiative targets making more food available to countries across the region rather than better positioning consumers to make food purchases. The more recent report also addresses the various types of financing needed for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean and their relationships to regional GDP, namely, financing of food consumption and production; public spending related to agricultural and noncontributory social protection expenditures; international development flows; and financing from the banking system and capital markets. For the moment, at least, it is unclear whether the new report will influence any strategic changes to the ongoing regional food security initiative being spearheaded by Guyana and Barbados.
The more recent ‘submission’ on Caribbean food security reportedly places emphasis on the importance of investing in agriculture and the need for other interventions to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition. It seemingly contends that the crux of the financial resources problem is focused primarily in rural areas across the Caribbean where high levels of poverty are prevalent. Beyond that, the report identifies various types of financing for food security and nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean, including financing that directly allows for food acquisition and consumption.
As is the case in the instance of the current and ongoing regional food security initiative, the new report also highlights the importance of investing in agriculture and the need for other interventions to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition. The recent report comes even as the countries of the region are in the process of a protracted wait for updated information on the creation of a regional food security terminal, a concern that has not, up to this time, attracted a response from Guyana and Barbados, the two ‘lead countries’ in the regional food security undertaking.
The more recent report also reportedly underlines the need to estimate the costs associated with “implementing policies,
programmes, and interventions as a prior element to analyzing food security and nutrition financing.” It also reportedly highlights the importance of improving information collection on the different financing flows.