CARIBBEAN-CARICOM to launch results of food security and livelihoods survey

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United Nations World Food Programme say they will launch on Wednesday the results of the eighth round of the Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods survey.

Since 2020, the regional initiative has been monitoring the impacts of climate shocks, economic uncertainty, and the rising cost of living on food security, livelihoods, and access to essential services across the Caribbean.

The facilitators have noted that after facing successive crises and devastating natural hazards over the last years, many people in the Caribbean are struggling to earn a living and meet their food and other critical needs.

CARICOM) launched the Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey, implemented by the World Food Programme, to gather data on people’s livelihoods, access to markets and food security, and provide snapshots of these impacts over time.

Data collected over six survey rounds highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the effect of natural hazards on food security and livelihoods in the region. The survey includes a dashboard that provides quick access to the findings for all Caribbean countries covered by the study.

Meanwhile, the St. Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), has released its findings for countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) after introducing a food import bill tracker with consolidated data on food imports in response to the moves by CARICOM member states in 2019 that deemed a 25 per cent reduction in the 2019 value of food imports by 2025 was necessary to help achieve food security.

The ECCU groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the British territories of Anguilla and Montserrat.

The food import bill tracker was aimed at helping policy-makers and the public to track progress concerning food import dependency over time. The most recent tracker shows rising import dependency. The 2023 trends confirm that the ECCU member countries continue to diverge from the target.

The intention is to reduce the total ECCU food import bill by 25 per cent to EC$1.3 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) by 2025

According to the ECCB, based on the data as at December 2023, seven out of the eight member countries imported more food in 2023, with meat, cereals, and fruits/vegetables accounting for 53 per cent of the total food imports.

It said that factors affecting the value of food imports include rising freight costs, climate change, and international disputes affecting shipping routes.