Fifth Round of the Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey

The latest report from round five of the CARICOM Food Security and Livelihoods Survey consolidates data gathered in August this year, and includes previous rounds of data released in April 2020, June 2020, February 2021 and February 2022 for the purpose of comparison. This report illustrates the evolving impacts on livelihoods, food security, markets and wider impacts during the cost of living crisis and the pandemic.

This regional report provides a summary of the results, while the dashboard can be accessed for more detailed country-level data and disaggregation based on respondents’ sex, age group, perceived income level and language.

Key findings from the August 2022 survey indicate that:

  • Food prices increased sharply since the onset of the Ukraine conflict. This has affected local food prices and, therefore, people’s access to food. On average, food inflation in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean has risen by 10.2% across 20 countries as of March 2022. Almost all respondents (97%) reported higher than usual food prices, an observation that is more widespread compared to February 2022. This is further compounded by the majority of respondents (91%) who reported difficulty in accessing markets primarily due to lack of financial means. This is influencing a shift in shopping behaviour, particularly among low-income households who are increasingly buying cheaper and less preferred foods and in smaller quantities than usual.
  • Food insecurity has drastically increased since February 2022. It is estimated that 4 million people (57%) out of 7.1 million in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean are food insecure, 9% are severely food insecure. This is a dramatic increase of 1.3 million since February 2022. Almost half of all respondents (48%) are worrying about inability to meet their food and other essential needs, which is a significant increase since February 2022 when a third of respondents had these worries.
  • People are adopting negative coping strategies to make ends meet. More people are skipping meals or eating less and choosing less preferred foods compared to February 2022. Lowest income households were most likely to resort to negative coping strategies, with 90% reporting to have depleted savings to meet food needs, 67% reduced spending on other essential non-food needs, and 63% sold productive assets.
  • The cost of living crisis and the pandemic continue to impact people’s livelihoods. Over half of respondents faced disruptions to their livelihoods in the two weeks prior to the survey, with most of them reporting the inability to afford livelihood inputs as the main cause of disruptions (62%). Negative impacts on income remain widespread, with 54% of respondents reporting that their household has experienced job loss or reduced income in the last year, and an additional 18% had to resort to secondary income source.
  • Differences in impacts are most pronounced when comparing income groups. Households classifying their incomes as below or well below average show the poorest results on all key metrics of well-being. Among the most impacted groups are also Spanish speakers living in Trinidad and Tobago (primarily assumed to be migrants from Venezuela), Guyana and Belize.