 Hi, and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am Hermadi Mark and joining me today is Mr. Regis Chapman, who is the Country Director and Representative of the World Food Program, Multicountry Office for the Caribbean. And we're going to have an interesting discussion with him on the work that he's doing, of course, in St. Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean. The work that the World Food Program is doing in St. Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean. Mr. Chapman, thank you so much for joining me. It's a pleasure to have this conversation with you today. Thank you for having me. A pleasure to be here. Nice. You know, to set the tone for this conversation, I would love to start with you, just highlighting yourself. It's a bit of insight into the work of the World Food Program, what do you do? So the World Food Program is a United Nations agency, this year actually marks 60 years from when the World Food Program was founded. And around the world, we are assisting people in 120 or 123 countries and territories. And we're meeting the immediate needs of people in emergencies. The World Food Program is the largest humanitarian agency, saving lives and what we say, changing lives as well. And really our emphasis here in the Caribbean is largely around that changing lives agenda. So how do we support governments in the Caribbean to strengthen some of their systems to better assist their populations? At the same time, we also maintain that capacity to respond to emergencies and support government led responses when that's needed. And obviously in a region like the Caribbean, with climate change, that risk is always there, as you know very well. We spend sort of six months on that nice edge wondering if this will be our year. And that obviously impacts the development of countries within the region and St. Lucia is no exception. So our work here is really around, as I mentioned, strengthening systems. What we've been doing in the Caribbean is essentially taking WFP's global capacities but really tailoring them to the context here in the Caribbean and supporting governments to strengthen their social protection systems, disaster management systems, and food systems really all to be more resilient in light of climate change. Right, and you know, you're bringing up the concept of climate change and you know one of the things that you think about when it comes to climate change and like you rightly mentioned, the food systems is food security. And I can imagine that your work surrounds that quite a bit. When we think of food security for the benefit of our audience, can we highlight you know the importance of ensuring, especially places like St. Lucia, Small Island, developing states that are in the right place or on the right track when it comes to that? It's really an interesting discussion. So we opened our office, our multi-country office for the Caribbean in mid-2018 and it was really the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season where of course Irma and Maria caused so much devastation around the region. And when we opened that office, I very rarely spoke about food security. It really wasn't on the agenda of governments or people. And what we've seen over the last few years, obviously with COVID-19, with the war in Ukraine, food security has become a very real issue in the Caribbean, including in St. Lucia. And we all see it. We see it when we go to do our shopping in the grocery stores and you notice a difference at the pump. Cost of living has just skyrocketed. And so food security, I think, has a bit more of a face to it now in the Caribbean than it perhaps has had in many years. WFP has been working with the CARICOM secretariat since the onset of COVID to conduct a series of food security and livelihood surveys. And again, what we've seen over five rounds of these surveys is how the situation has shifted. So that first round of surveys was done in really the early days of COVID-19 in April 2020. And we saw people were struggling to access food, but it was because of the restrictions and the lockdowns. And you remember all those rules that countries put in place about what days you can go shopping and by last name and different sort of solutions to reduce the number of people interacting. And so those mitigation measures to mitigate that the health impacts had all these socioeconomic impacts. And so those first rounds of the surveys really reflected that. And I think what we saw in the first first round is that virtually everyone was taking the same measures. We were shopping less frequently. We were stocking up a little bit more. And we were taking these approaches. And virtually everyone was able to do that. As we got to the second round and the third round, we began to see more of a split between the haves and the have-nots. So wealthier segments of populations kept doing that larger bulk purchases, having many days or weeks worth of food at their house. Poor households began to struggle to do that. And as we then got to the post-Ukraine War survey round, what we really began to see is the affordability issue. And so, again, it continued to impact more of those that were of lower income levels and higher income levels. But really the depth of the crisis at that stage, three and a half years of economic downturn and impacts of COVID in the war in Ukraine was really pushing more and more people into food insecurity. And so that last round of the survey, we estimate that there were 57% of the English-speaking Caribbean were food insecure. I mean, that's just every time I say that, it's sort of, I doubt myself, right? It just doesn't make sense. We're talking about the English-speaking Caribbean and 57% that's such a staggering, staggering number. But again, if you go into the grocery store today, you can very clearly understand why that number is what it is. It's just the cost of living has skyrocketed. And that on the back of those impacts of COVID-19, with job loss, income loss, obviously reduced revenues, governments, including in St. Vincent, St. Lucia have had to obviously increase their expenditures at a time where their income was also reduced. So you don't have tourism in the same way. Obviously that's now recovering, fortunately, but we had those years where there was, tourism was impacted. And so a lot of sources of revenue were reduced, but with a growing percentage of population in need, governments had to respond as they did here in St. Lucia. Oh, very true. I know while you're speaking earlier, I had the question, coming into each Caribbean country, while we understandably, a lot of the Caribbean countries, we face the same vulnerabilities. In terms of working with the governments, how do you set out the plan as to, what do you tackle first or understanding what needs to happen as you go country by country? So really a unique experience of World Food Program in the Caribbean. And it's because that, as I said, reflecting after the 2017 hurricane season, while I think the World Food Program, we did a lot right in those responses, there were things that could have been done better, as there always are, right? But that lack of real understanding of the countries we were supporting, I think impacted our ability to deliver our assistance in the best way possible. And we learned quickly as we were going along, but the more you know and advance, the better, right? And so when we opened the office, it was really a blank slate. We've worked with a number of the countries in the Caribbean, including St. Lucia, but many years in the past. And I still remember meeting some of the government officials as I traveled around and really, ones that had been in government for many years, they would sort of say, yeah, the World Food Program, we remember you, you helped us with our school feeding program in the 80s or you helped us with something else in the 70s. And it had been several years that we weren't present. So what it allowed us to do is one, again, there were no preconceived ideas of what the World Food Program should do. And there were no, from either side, from the government side or from our side. And so it allowed us to really create more of a demand-driven approach. And that allowed us to tailor how we apply those capacities of the World Food Program in each country. And so I mentioned that we're supporting the strengthening of social protection, disaster management and food systems. The social protection and disaster management systems were sort of the beginning of that work. St. Lucia was one of the, a handful of countries where we had done some evidence generation work around both the social protection and disaster management structures. Just before COVID struck, I was here in St. Lucia and we were having sort of a consultation on that research that was done to begin to map out what we would do with the governments of St. Lucia. Obviously then the world changed when COVID broke out and we all closed airports and borders and that engagement became a bit more of a challenge. But it gave us that foundation on which to continue to engage with the government here and supportive people. And so when COVID-19 broke out, there was, as I mentioned, you know, there's this sudden increasing need of people within any country in the world that needed support. And governments around the world, including here, use social protection systems and programs as one of their tools to respond to those growing needs. We've had a lot of different experiences in the different countries where we've worked. But here in St. Lucia, what we did, the government was trying to expand its public assistance program. And so we helped bring some of the more traditional humanitarian resources that the World Food Program is oftentimes able to access, along with some other resources that we had to help the government to be able to make that expansion in a much quicker timeframe than they had originally foreseen. So we helped the government to expand that program by, I think, around 1,000 people during the midst of COVID-19 and those socioeconomic impacts. And so, you know, already having had that engagement, we understood some of those systems and the priorities of the government, and we were able to adapt and provide that initial assistance. No, wonderfully. You know, you mentioned the COVID-19 period and you so rightfully mentioned, during that time, the way that COVID hit us, and one of the things that it did is really showed our vulnerabilities, a lot of our deficiencies. And one of the things for me that I took away is the importance of sustainability and being self-sufficient. In terms of the work of the World Food Program, supporting St. Lucia, of course, the rest of the Caribbean, you've mentioned that you assist the government when it comes to such, but when it comes to, again, touching on food security and its importance as a country, can you highlight anything that the World Food Program has done? Because food systems, like you mentioned, is one of the things that you do that assist in that regard. Again, another good question. As I said before, food security wasn't really on the agendas in COVID-19. I think COVID-19 did a couple of things in terms of exposing some of the vulnerabilities. One, it reminded us that this is really a multi-hazard environment, the Caribbean, right? It's susceptible to economic shocks. I remember saying in those beginning days, it doesn't matter if we have one case in the Caribbean or zero cases or a million cases, those socioeconomic impacts are stemming from the reliance on specific economic sources of revenue, so tourism or services, and so kind of singular economies suffered, obviously, because the source of that economic revenue was to a large degree cut off. And at the same time, we then, during the midst of COVID, obviously had the volcanic eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which didn't just impact St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We had Ashfall and Barbados. I think you had some here in St. Lucia as well, and then obviously the impact there. So I think the last couple of years has been that reminder that there are multiple vulnerabilities here in the Caribbean, and oftentimes people were just looking at those large-scale hurricanes, and perhaps 2017 set that stage for us to kind of look at it in that way, but susceptible to earthquakes. You have Kikumgenii here. We have a number of different hazards, and again, this economic hazard. So I think that was one part of it. I think the other part is that COVID-19, and then I think the Ukraine crisis kind of doubled down on this, really exposed the fragility of food systems in the Caribbean. Across the Caribbean, around 80% of food is imported. I think if you, that takes into account Agayana, which is a net exporter, Belize and also Suriname, which produced quite a lot. If you take those three out, the level of imports is just, it's quite significant, right? So this is why the food price crisis that we're having now is likely to stick around in the Caribbean a bit longer than it will in other parts, because it's how those prices gradually trickle down the line and make it to sort of end consumers. And here in the Caribbean, the end consumers a lot further away from where those foods are produced. So the Karakom secretariat has been focusing on what they call the 25 by 25, which is reducing food import bill by 25% by the year 2025. And it's something that we've been engaging with them at the regional level on. I think as we look at specific countries, and including St. Lucia, there's a couple of areas. So one, again, food systems are not just the production, right? And I think what's extremely important is also the consumption side. And so as I mentioned before, with those five rounds of surveys we've conducted, affordability is really the issue right now. People can't afford a healthy diet. And to begin with, the Caribbean has the most expensive, cost of a healthy diet anywhere in the world, I believe. So it was already an expensive diet, and now with food price increases and fuel price increases, it's even more. And so what we need to look at is not just how do we produce more, but how do we make it more affordable and how do we support people that are struggling to be able to purchase the food that they need? So we're working alongside partners like the FAO and governments to look at how do we link some of these social services with agricultural services as well. What we're trying to do is look at opportunities whereby people that are reliant upon social assistance are also able to access livelihoods opportunities. And some of those may be in agriculture. But I think there's another important aspect, which is it's what we consume. So it's not what we can afford, but it's also what we can consume. And I was talking today with colleagues about breadfruit consumption in Barbados versus breadfruit consumption here and different things here versus different things there. And there's not enough of that, right? We go into the supermarket and we're buying our processed goods that are imported and we're not eating what we're growing. And this is a big part of that 25 by 25 campaign is about eating what you grow and growing what you eat. I agree with that completely, Mr. Chapman. And I think I would like for us to hold that thought because I think that is a discussion in itself. Of course, you're watching issues and answers on the government information service. Stay with us, we'll be back and we'll continue this discussion. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development. Continues placing heavy emphasis on the concept of food security. It's our prosperity, our future. The crop production unit conducts surveillance and monitoring for trans, boundary pests and diseases of quarantine importance for St. Lucia. It provides technical assistance in the areas of post harvest technology, agro processing and soil and plant tissue diagnosis. The unit facilitates prudent management of agrochemicals and toxic chemicals in an environmentally friendly manner for sustainable development. Soil analysis is also being carried out. Need further assistance on crop production? Contact the senior research officer at 468-5601. And walking back to issues and answers we're having a conversation with Mr. Chapman, who is the country director and representative of the World Food Program, multi-country office for the Caribbean. And it's just been such an interesting conversation with Mr. Chapman, these type of interviews I don't want to end at all. But prior to the break, we were talking about the importance of being self-sufficient but even more so ensuring that it's not just... How do you put this? You don't rely on policy alone to try to fix issues of food security but you look inwards, in country and you kind of make wise consumption decisions. Is that a good way to put it? I think it is. So I think we need to be realistic in expectations as well, right? I don't think it's a realistic expectation to say that St. Lucia or Dominique or Barbados or a small island developing state is going to become fully food sovereign, right? In other words, grows all of its own food that it needs. So we do need to be realistic about what those expectations are. But again, going back to what you eat is a critical part of it. And those COVID-19 food security and livelihood surveys that I've mentioned, one other thing that we tracked was how many people are looking at agricultural production or engaged in fisheries. And what we've seen is a lot more artisanal production as well. So people starting backyard gardens that weren't doing that before and that spread across income groups as well. So it wasn't just that coping strategy but I mentioned the food prices and that you notice a difference but you also notice a difference in the quality of goods that are on those shelves as well, right? And I think this relates to the challenges with supply chains around the world right now. So I don't think we're getting some of those fresh fruits and vegetables coming from outside of the countries arriving in the same time frames that they used to. So we're also seeing a quality issue and I think that's helped to rejuvenate this desire of many households to have their own gardens or chickens or whatever else people are doing to kind of cope. But I do feel that there is a bit more of a fundamental challenge in terms of the types of diets that we've become accustomed to and again the reliance on what are good. So I think there is a bit of that balance. We engage in a number of countries with ministries of education and agriculture on their school feeding programs. And I think this is a real good opportunity for how do you integrate locally produced foods within the diets of young children but we also need the parents back home to reinforce those messages as well because some of these behaviors and consumption preferences really start at a very young age. So how do we take more of a whole of society approach to begin to create that pride for these wonderful Caribbean foods that we have on offer but again, we're not choosing to consume in the same degree that we were before. I agree just by listening to you speak, Mr. Chapman. I can tell that the work of the World Food Program can align to many of the ministries that we have here. You've touched on health, you've touched on agriculture and also we know that you do have a collaboration with the Ministry of Equity currently with the limited time that we have for this interview. I'd love to be able to touch on that a little bit more about the work that you're currently doing with the Ministry of Equity. So again, we've been working with the Ministry of Equity since we began working in St. Lucia. I'd say it's our primary counterpart within the government up till now. So there's all the work that we did during COVID-19 but we're in the process of ironing out let's say the next two years of work that we plan to do with the Ministry here. A lot of it involves around strengthening those social protection systems to better fulfill their normal role and in other words, their normal times but also to be what we call shock responses. So when an event happens, whether that's an economic shock or a natural hazard or something else that those systems can scale up and provide assistance to people who need it. We've been working with the government to do a household vulnerability index. So again, really deepening the understanding of vulnerability at that household level. So we talk about vulnerability before in the Caribbean but we're really looking at that macro level, right? The risk of a storm or the risk of a volcanic eruption or rising sea levels or whatever we wanna look at but my vulnerability may be very different from your vulnerability. So also understanding those household dynamics particularly in the case of a Ministry of Equity that with their social workers are assisting those most vulnerable households. So a lot of work around that analysis and some of the targeting work and developing standard operating procedures so that those systems can scale up and meet additional needs. And then some more innovative work around digitalization and testing out digital payment mechanisms. So during Hurricane Elsa, we supported assistance to impacted populations using a digital transfer tool as opposed to the traditional transfers that take place. Nice, I feel like we've only touched just on a minute amount of the work that the World Food Program does. And I'm really interested in finding out what more that you do. And I'm very sure that there are members of our viewing audience that might feel the same to be able to find out more about the World Food Program, to get more information. What is the best cost of action to do so? So you can follow us online or Twitter is WRP underscore Caribbean. We have a Facebook page. If you just search for the World Food Program, you'll see all the work that we're doing here around the Caribbean. We also have our website WRP.org and you can see what we do all around the world. But you can also select the Caribbean and see the specifics of what we're doing here. Very nice. And is there anything throughout this interview that you may like to leave with our audience? Anything that I may not have asked and that you think is important to mention? No, look, I think, again, food security has really grown in terms of the importance. And I think we all have a part to play, right? And so there's obviously government policy that can be adapted or strengthened to really reinforce food security within the country, budgetary allocations to programs that help address some of the food insecurity and some of the vulnerabilities that we see. And at the same time, a call on people to do their part, to do our part as parents, as mentors of youth. How do we make sure that youth are engaged in agriculture? How do we make sure that our kids are eating a healthy diet? And a lot of that starts at home. Very true, Mr. Chapman. Thank you. And once again, thank you so much for joining me for this conversation. Of course, I know that this is not the last time that I will be speaking with you, hopefully. So wishing you the very best, of course, with your work here in the Caribbean and wishing the World Food Program the very best in continuing the good work that you guys are doing. Thank you very much, and thanks for having me. You're welcome. This has been Issues and Answers on the Government Information Service. Of course, you know, you could always stay connected with us and you can follow us on our social media pages of the Government of Saint Lucia. Until next time, I'm Hermitie Mark.