Caribbean Urged to Invest in a Comprehensive Regional Platform For Food Security

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries are being urged to invest in a comprehensive regional platform for food security monitoring and analysis as well as accelerate progress under the CARICOM 25 by 25 agenda by investing in regional food production and addressing bottlenecks to intra-regional trade.

These are among the recommendations contained in a 38-page Caribbean Food Security & Livelihoods Survey report that was intended to shed light on the continued food security and livelihood challenges in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

Since 2020, CARICOM has been partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) to monitor the evolving dynamics through the Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey that provides valuable insights into people’s access to markets, livelihoods and food security. The findings help inform governments and development partners as they address regional challenges.

The latest edition, the eighth round of the survey, was carried out between 20 May and 20 June 2025 and the latest report compares those results to earlier surveys dating back to April 2020, offering a longitudinal look at the impacts of climate shocks and economic strain over time.

“Recent data reveals that an estimated 3.2 million people across the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean are food insecure. This figure represents 42 percent of that population. The steady decrease in food security which was observed after the global food price crisis in 2022, appears to have stalled,” said Dr. Wendell Samuel, the acting CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General and Brian Bogart Representative & Country Director of the WFP Multi-Country Office for the English & Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

“This eighth round of the Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey, led by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and the United Nations World Food Programme, reflects the lived experiences of over 2,500 people from across the Caribbean. The results indicate that many people are compromising their diets, depleting their savings, and reducing expenditure on health or education to be able afford groceries.

“A nation’s health is its wealth, and these coping mechanisms can have longer-term impacts, especially for children, older persons and those with chronic illnesses,” they wrote in the report.

The report notes that while there have been signs of gradual stabilization in some areas, food insecurity remains deeply entrenched in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, signaling a concerning plateau following the initial recovery after the peak of the food price crisis in 2022.

The report states that the similarities to last year’s survey data are striking. Almost an identical percentage of respondents skipped meals (six percent in 2025; five percent in 2024) or went a whole day without eating (30 percent in 2025; 29 percent in 2024), had no food stock (29 percent in 2025; 28 percent in 2024), faced job or income loss in the household (34 percent in 2025; 32 percent in 2024).

“When asked about their main concerns, the most common response again was people’s ability to meet their essential needs – as it has been since the April 2022 survey round,” according to the report, adding that the data shows clearly that households with limited financial means continue to face the greatest hardship.

“These families report higher rates of meal skipping, reduced spending on health and education, and depletion of savings. Such coping strategies may help in the short term, but they can carry lasting consequences.

“Across all rounds of the survey since 2020, the evidence has pointed to persistent disparities and the disproportionate impact of food insecurity on those already living with the fewest resources. While the survey collects information at the household level, this inevitably masks important differences in vulnerability and capacity within households, especially for women and girls. These differences must be addressed in the design of policies and programs.”

The report states that food price increases, income losses, and exposure to shocks remain the key drivers of food insecurity.

It said that nearly half of all respondents reported a job loss, reduced income, or the need to turn to secondary income sources in their household.

“Two out of five people reported a disruption to their livelihoods. Meanwhile, access to markets is worse than during the pandemic, with cost remaining the main barrier. Climate-related hazards such as hurricanes and drought continue to undermine agricultural production and strain household budgets. The impact is especially severe for farmers and fisherfolk, who continue to face rising input costs that reduce both productivity and profits.”

But the report said that despite these challenges, progress is underway.

It said regional and national efforts to boost food production, implementing agricultural policies, increase intra-regional trade, invest in more adaptive social protection, and develop innovative climate and disaster risk financing instruments are all laying the groundwork for more robust food systems and improving responses to future shocks.

The report acknowledged that to reduce food insecurity and build resilient food systems, it is critical to advance coordinated, forward-looking solutions that bring together public institutions, the private sector and communities.

“Strengthened collaboration, targeted investment, and inclusive approaches will be key to ensuring that everyone in the Caribbean can meet their most basic need: safe, affordable and nutritious food.”

Among the recommendations contained in the report, countries are being urged to accelerate progress under the CARICOM 25 by 2030 agenda by investing in regional food production, addressing bottlenecks to intra-regional trade, and scaling up public and private sector investments across the agri-food value chain.

The CARICOM 25 by 2025 initiative, which targeted the reduction of the region’s more than six billion US dollars food import bill by 25 percent by yearend, has now been extended to 2030.

Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, who has lead responsibility for agriculture and food security in the CARICOM Quasi Cabinet, told his colleagues at their summit in Barbados in February that while significant progress had been made to date under the Initiative, the devastating consequences of Hurricane Beryl in July last year on the agriculture sector  and continuing global supply chain disruptions had affected the original deadline.

The report recommends that Caribbean countries continue to strengthen the productive capacities of smallholder farmers and fisherfolk through improved access to financing, climate-resilient technologies and practices, and linkages to institutional markets.

It also urged countries to promote the participation of youth and women in agriculture and food systems, strengthen linkages between social protection, agriculture and disaster risk reduction to promote inclusive recovery and resilience, including through improved policy coordination and locally tailored programs.

The countries are also being urged to develop and scale inclusive disaster risk financing tools, including risk-layered approaches, to protect livelihoods and ensure timely support to people affected by hazards. Build on and expand experiences linking financing to shock-responsive social protection.

They should  also continue to invest in shock-responsive social protection systems and link program design and scale-up to early warning systems and to enable early, targeted action when shocks occur as well as leverage public employment and social assistance programs to support recovery and resilience building, particularly in vulnerable communities, by linking these schemes to local disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation efforts.

“Institutionalize anticipatory action by linking food security and climate indicators to pre-defined actions that mitigate the impacts of shocks. Improve interagency coordination to enable timely and effective responses,” is another recommendation, with the report urging the expansion of efforts to promote healthy diets and increase demand for local nutritious food, including through school feeding programs, awareness campaigns, and policy incentives that support local production and connect farmers to institutional markets.