Report on the Workshop and Exhibition on Developing and Implementing Food and Nutrition Plans of Action in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Abstract

[Introduction, Kenneth A. Leslie and Food and Nutrition Planner Caribbean Food & Nutrition Institute]. In 1983, the Heads of Government of the CARICOM Region, endorsed for implementation, the Regional Food and Nutrition Strategy with overall goals of promoting increased self-sufficiency and selfreliance in food production and availability, and improved health and nutrition status of the population of the Region. The Strategy had been developed against the background of a number of socio-economic problems including increasing imports of food, worsening balance of payments positions, high and rising levels of unemployment, and indications of a deterioration in the nutritional status of some segments of the Region's population. The effective implementation of the Strategy, it was recognized, involved the translation of its proposals into meaningful national and community programmes and activities. This required the active participation and involvement of a wide cross-section of agencies in both the public and private sectors, as well as of a variety of community groups and organizations. With this in mind, the Strategy proposed that multi-sectoral food and nutrition councils, involving public and private sector agencies and community groups and organizations, should be established at the country-level, to facilitate the development of national food and nutrition plans of action, and to serve as catalysts for their implementation. Indeed, these planning and co-ordinating bodies were seen as critical elements in the process of implementing the Strategy. Progress with the development and operation of the planning and co-ordinating bodies have not, however, been as rapid as the Strategy had anticipated. Not surprisingly therefore, the implementation of the Strategy and the achievements of its objectives, have lagged behind expectations. Against this background, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) made a special grant to CFNI in 1987, to review the status of food and nutrition planning and co-ordination in the Region, and to make recommendations on how the process could be made more effective.