By Robert Andre Emmanuel
The regional director for the World Food Programme (WFP) Regis Chapman said the SIDS 4 conference will be critical to addressing food insecurity in the region.
In an exclusive interview with Observer media, the World Food Programme’s Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean Representative & Country Director, Chapman spoke about the work the WFP has been doing to support the region, including Antigua and Barbuda, in advancing food security.
The World Food Programme is an international organisation within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide.
He spoke about the findings in the 2024 Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey which saw 43 percent of persons within the English speaking Caribbean being labelled as food insecure — a situation where people are unable to receive sufficient nutritious foods.
“That includes people who are moderate and severely food insecure and those numbers have come down over the last couple of years, but they remain significantly higher than at the start of Covid-19.
“What we’re seeing that food security is resulting from is really an issue of affordability—so the challenge we have in the Caribbean, it’s not the macroeconomic picture, it’s really how do we make sure that governments are able to support and promote the livelihoods of the poorest and most vulnerable people,” he explained.
The WFP delegation to the SIDS4 conference is being led by Executive Director Cindy McCain and plans to hold numerous side events at the conference including addressing disaster risk financing, humanitarian development, and data and food security.
“[The importance of data] is not just about food security; it relates to a sort of social oriented programme that is critical, so that governments are making decisions based on what the needs are, and we have seen with our [food security surveys] that the WFP and CARICOM Secretariat have conducted, it has given governments a tool to be able to start making more informed decisions,” he said.
Director Chapman praised the government of Antigua and Barbuda for its role in organising the conference, noting that it is “no small feat” to ensure the success of a major conference with thousands of delates from across the world.
We also spoke about how climate change can impact the food security of small island developing states.
“We continue to see the impacts of climate change and it’s not just the storms; we’ve been having a heatwave throughout the Caribbean for some months now and that impacts agriculture,
“I think also what we’re seeing is the global impacts of climate change do have trickle down impacts in the Caribbean and it’s not just climate change, it’s shocks in general.
“So, we’ve seen it with Covid-19. We’ve seen it with the war in Ukraine, how the rising cost of transportation has an impact on small island developing States and again, people’s ability to put a healthy plate of food on the table every day,” the Director noted.
