PRESIDENT, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has urged regional leaders to come up with decisive policies that reflect the political will and financing needed to address food insecurity in the region.
These remarks were made at the 38th session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, currently being held in Georgetown, Guyana.

The regional FAO is one of several official forums where ministers of agriculture and high-level officials of member states meet to discuss challenges and priority matters related to food and agriculture.

According to President Ali, what is needed is the political will to overcome the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the region. As pointed out by President Ali, many people say they want to end hunger and end starvation and malnutrition, but their budgetary allocations do not reflect that will.

Elaborating further on the question of political will, President Ali said that political will is “not about shouting out the message; it is about taking policy action and making policy intervention that address the issues. Political will is about making the necessary adjustments and changes in your own local system to support the message we are putting forward.”

The above is by no means intended to, as it were, “lecture” other countries on how they should manage their country’s domestic agricultural policies; but as someone who is the current Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and who also has responsibility for food security and nutrition in the region, it is a call than can only be ignored at the expense of the food-security needs of the Caribbean people.

The region still continues to experience a food deficit and is forced to spend an inordinate sum of money on food imports from outside the region.
A similar call was voiced by Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha, who is Chair of the Summit.

According to Minister Mustapha, there is need to improve initiatives, financial support and concrete action to increase the resilience and sustainability of agri-food systems to overcome the impacts of climate change and food insecurity in light of the region’s high vulnerability.

The fact is that food insecurity stands at its highest level in recent decades. This is especially so in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, where it is estimated that around 43 per cent of the population reported reduced food consumption in 2023.

At the 44th Regular Meeting of Conference of Heads in Nassau, Bahamas, leaders endorsed a proposal put forward by President Ali aimed at building food security through innovation, resilience, sustainability and empowerment.
Guyana has pledged US$2M towards financing and implementing the project.

The overall aim is to realise the 25 by 25 CARICOM initiative, with a view to increase food security by reducing the regional food-importation value by at least 25 per cent by 2025. Research has shown that the region imports from out of the region approximately 80 per cent of the food that it consumes, amounting to approximately US$4 billion.