Grenada Food and Nutrition Security Policy, 2013.

The Vision of this Food and Nutrition Security Policy is to fully recognize the Right to Food and to ensure that all Grenadians, at all times, have physical, economic, and social access to safe, nutritious, culturally acceptable, and affordable food in sufficient quantities to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Its Mission is to promote sustainable and permanent food availability, food accessibility, food utilization/nutrition adequacy, and stability food supply for all Grenadians through integrated and well-coordinated multi-sectoral measures/initiatives at all levels of the Government and through the active involvement of civil society and the private sector.
As far as food availability is concerned the main challenges identified are: i) Securing and maintaining regular supply of good quality planting materials; ii) Achieving economies of scale; iii) Stimulating and financing investment in R&D; iv) Declining land resource. Policy Goal 1 under food access: Conserve the natural resources and meet the challenges of a changing climate its relatice objective: Increase the sustainable use of domestic production resources for food production (land, marine resources, water, forests). Challenges to food access are identified at three levels: household; community and national. The analysis of food utilization and nutritional adequacy points to a shift in consumption patterns of Grenadians, from foods that are locally produced to imported foods that are generally high in salts, sugars and saturated fats. There are several challenges with respect to food utilization. Among these are: i) Inadequate knowledge of nutritional requirements; ii) Lack of or insufficient food in the household; iii) Mass media advertising of processed foods; iv) Poor intake of micro nutrients; and v) High cost of local foods.
Using the Poverty Assessment Report (2008) data and other sources a list of vulnerable population was identified. According to the Country Poverty Assessment Report, children and female-headed households are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups for food and nutrition insecurity in Grenada. Although, the vulnerable population can be found throughout Grenada, the highest level of poverty is predominantly in the rural communities with the parish of St. Patrick having a poverty level of 35%. When depth of poverty is taken into consideration, some selected communities in the parishes of St Marks and St Andrews were the most vulnerable.
The time frame for the implementation of priority areas of action are presented as short term (2013 - 2015); medium term (2016 - 2018) and long term, beyond 2018 in line with Government's budgetary cycle.
All actions implemented under this policy will be free from child labour, recognize the principle of fair compensation and be gender sensitive.)
The development of the Food and Nutrition Policy was guided by the Ministry’s of Agriculture Mission Statement: “To facilitate national food security and the increase in economic returns from the agricultural sector through the promotion of sustainable use of natural resources and the provision of quality services and products” and the Grenada Food and Nutrition Security Policy: to promote sustainable and permanent food availability, food accessibility, food utilization/nutrition adequacy, and stability food supply for all Grenadians through integrated and well-coordinated multi-sectoral measures/initiatives at all levels of the Government and through the active involvement of civil society and the private sector.
Within the framework of a “New Economy” intervention is required in the following areas: Development of a strategic policy framework for all strategic sectors, especially Agriculture; Capacity building of human resource; and integrated management information system to support programmes relative to food and nutrition. The text consists of 7 Chapters as follows: Introduction (1); Background to the Policy (2); The Current Policy Environment for Food Security and Nutrition (3); The Institutional and Stakeholder Environment (4); The Food and Nutrition Policy of Grenada (5); Creating enabling Environment for Policy Implementation (6); Monitoring and Evaluation of the Policy (7).