Food and Nutrition Security Plan of Action 2014-2018

The Food and Nutrition Security Plan of Action is a cross-sectoral national action plan of Barbados for the period 2014-2018. Its main objective is to create optimal conditions for food and nutrition security for all.
More specifically, it aims to promote the sustainable production, processing, preparation, marketing and consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious and quality domestic food commodities and importation of foods that have the same attributes as domestically produced food; ensure improved regular access by national households, with emphasis on the poor and vulnerable households, to sufficient quantities of safe, affordable, quality (domestic or imported) food at all times, particularly in response to diverse socio-economic and natural shocks; improve the nutritional status of the population by paying specific attention to the consequences of poor dietary intakes and deficient micronutrient status; and improve the resilience of the Barbadian food producers, communities and households particularly in response to diverse socio-economic and natural shocks, by ensuring that all have at all times access to sufficient resources and efficient services to produce and acquire adequate, safe, affordable and nutritious food. Moreover, the document plans to ensure that the “Right to Food” concept is encompassed in all relevant national policies and plans. The Action Plan also envisions specific measures for vulnerable groups aiming to improve nutritional status of infants, children and pregnant and lactating women, the poor and other vulnerable groups.
In the area of environmental protection, the document targets to develop and implement management systems to ensure the environmental preservation and sustainable utilisation of marine, land, water and air resources; conduct research for the preparation and execution of programmes targeted at the development of products from the utilisation of waste materials generated by the agricultural and fisheries sectors; and develop and implement programmes that promote the utilization of alternative energy in the agribusiness sector.
Furthermore, the document targets poverty by ensuring private and public sector collaboration among all relevant agencies with responsibility for food and nutrition security, through the establishment of platforms for dialogue and actions related to the implementation of poverty reduction policies and strategies; strengthening partnerships between the Government and the private agro-business and commercial sectors for the purpose of creating new employment opportunities for vulnerable groups particularly for women and youth; and building capacity among the poor and vulnerable in communities for self-reliant actions to address inadequate food access by contributing to the creation of strong partnerships between Government agencies, civil society and community-based organizations.
Further, the Action Plan provides measures for agricultural development, among others, aiming to strengthen the extension and other services as well as enhance research and development capacity aimed at the identification and transfer of new varieties and innovative technologies to farmers; provide agricultural training; facilitate the collection, production, conservation, importation, evaluation and distribution of high quality genetic material; build appropriate technical capacity along the value chain, to facilitate the adoption of new technologies; examine, adopt and adapt international best practices in institutional frameworks to support public-private partnerships and investment aimed at building competitiveness in the agricultural sector; promote the value chain approach as a means of developing key industries/commodities in order to maximize potential cost efficiencies, improve productivity within the sector and increase the production and consumption of select food products to meet the dietary requirements of the population; develop and implement a coherent trade policy; review and amend relevant laws, regulations and policies to support greater access/use of lands and water resources by the agricultural sector and reduce the alienation of land; review and improve the existing irrigation and drainage program; and assess the current capacity, management and operation of critical infrastructure and facilities such as post-harvest facilities, abattoirs and cold storage/chillers with a view to improvement.
The document also emphasizes the actions for disaster preparedness. Namely, it plans to strengthen the mandate and capacity of the relevant climate change and disaster risk management agencies to address issues related to the coordination of national food security; improve the effectiveness of existing disaster preparedness and mitigation systems/plans, especially in food producing areas; and mainstream climate change adaptation policies and disaster risk management issues into national, sector and community based planning. Additionally, the document foresees improving agro-meteorological data systems, among others, by developing early warning/alert system to disseminate information to farmers and fishermen.
For the implementation, the Action Plan provides for plans to develop and implement the requisite legislative framework to facilitate the implementation of the Action Plan; establish a Food and Nutrition Security Council (FNSC); establish a Technical Secretariat for the FNSC; establish a Consultative Group to provide information on technical issues pertinent to their respective mandates and areas of expertise to the FNSC; and establish a Food Nutrition Security Desk within the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management to facilitate all projects related to food and nutrition security.