FAO – Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet Seminar
One of the activities for the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) 2023 was a seminar on the new methodology on the Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoAHD) to inform the Agrifood system of the Caribbean. It was held on the 11th October and was collaboratively organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), CARICOM Secretariat and the Regional Development Partners.
This seminar was part of a series of activities of the project TCP/SLC/3904 – Assistance in monitoring and reporting on the SDGs through the analysis of the cost and affordability of a healthy diet and the implementation of the FIES (Food Insecurity Experience Scale) methodology in this region.
The main objectives of the seminar were to:
. Assist to calculate the CoAHD indicators in order to identify the capacity of the food system of the selected countries to provide food that meets the dietary needs of their population at the lowest cost;
- Assist to strengthen the capacity of governments in the region to regularly calculate the CoAHD indicators and to integrate them into their food price monitoring system;
- Present different aspects of how national and sub-national food price data can influence the CoAHD;
- Provide policy makers with nationally representative estimates of the cost of healthy diets to support population groups that cannot afford healthy diets due to high food prices and income constraints.
Representing the Ministry of Agriculture was Dr. Michael Rickaille, the Focal Point for the project; “More needs to be done in terms of lowering the cost/ and improving the affordability of a healthy diet within our region [Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)] which unfortunately is the highest in the world presently. Worldwide, according to the FAO, the average cost of a healthy diet is 3.66 PPP dollars per day per person while within the region it is 4.08 PPP dollars. What is even more concerning is, three countries with the highest cost of a healthy diet in the world are in the Caribbean!” Dr. Rickaille said.
The Seminar included two main components: an interactive panel discussion, comprising of panelist from the FAO, the CARICOM Secretariat as well as a representative from Guyana; and a workshop which introduced the methodology used to calculate the CoAHD indicators.
The expected impact is that Caribbean countries make progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2: end hunger, achieve FOOD SECURITY and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture) by implementing effective, evidence-based policies and strategies to facilitate access to healthy and affordable diets to eradicate hunger and all forms of malnutrition.