MEXICO-CARICOM-FAO launch School Feeding sub-project in six Caribbean countries

6 April 2020, Mexico - Mexico, CARICOM and FAO have organized a regional meeting to launch a sub-project on “Resilient school feeding programs” that aims at strengthening the capacities of institutions and stakeholders to implement resilient and sustainable National School Feeding Programs in Bahamas, Belize, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this initiative has been reformulated to place greater focus towards supporting participating countries in their responses to safeguard livelihoods, ensure adequate access to healthy food and ensure sustainable management of natural resources.

The Mexico-CARICOM-FAO Initiative began its implementation in October 2018 with the objective of increasing the resilience of Caribbean countries to global systemic risks via the updating and / or design of public policy instruments that improve the livelihoods and well-being of families and communities, provide access to healthy food and the management of its natural resources by increasing adaptation and resilience to climate change.

During the event, participants from the Ministries of Agriculture and Education of the six participating countries shared their views on how to augment the project’s impact.  This was echoed by Ms. Gloria Sandoval, General Director of the Mesoamerica Project, representative of AMEXCID, who stated that “Mexico’s support to this Initiative represents a great effort, especially now that the economic consequences of the pandemic have hurt us all, Caribbean countries are of paramount importance, which is why Mexico wants to assist in preventing that the health and economic crisis we are living may become a food crisis”.

The meeting highlighted the need to strengthen the capacities of participating countries via SSTC mechanisms, such as reinforcing linkages between small-scale farmers and schools through government procurement programs, as well as improving production practices through the use of organic inputs. 

The SSTC mechanism will also be used in participating countries, in order to teach kids how to produce their own food, to support farmer’s associative processes for steady supply of inputs to school feeding programs, as well as in strengthening school curricula, monitoring of nutritional quality of foods consumed by school children and producing data to seek correlations between academic performance and nutrition.

Ms. Nirmalla Debysingh-Persad, CEO, National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation, Trinidad and Tobago also said, “School gardens are a way to feed our future leaders and for them to learn how to become self-reliant in terms of food security”.

FAO’s work on South-South and Triangular Cooperation

FAO has played a pioneering role in championing South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC), and more than $370 million have been invested in related projects and activities during the past two decades. Mexico has been a strategic partner of the south for countries in Latin American and Caribbean and FAO.

The successful introduction in many countries of new technologies and knowledge sharing through SSTC  is directly contributing towards achieving, in particular, SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.