by Curlan Campbell
- Chronic non-communicable diseases, many influenced by diet, still leading cause of death
- Alongside increasing minimum wage, there should be cost control measures on food items
- Frameworks needed to promote gender equality with regard to access and income
The intersection of food security and its connection to minimum wage increases are factors the Government of Grenada is reviewing.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has provided technical support to the Government through the expertise of a Health and Nutrition Specialist and consultant for updating the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy and corresponding action plan.
The policy’s main objective is to “promote national sustainable and permanent food security, underpinned by the Right to food in legislation, for all Grenadians through integrated and well-coordinated multi-sectoral measures and initiatives at all levels of the Government and through the active involvement of civil society and the private commercial sector.”
A combination informs the policy update of the following: completion of a gap assessment of the outdated policy, stakeholder consultations, review of current national policies and plans and study of international publications, particularly from the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). The update highly considers the recommendations for policy directional shifts to promote greater success in achieving food and nutrition security. This process helped identify priority areas for the proposed interventions within the action plan.
Due to the role that minimum wage plays in food security, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Labour, and Consumer Affairs dedicated the first 40 minutes of the second Town Hall meeting on minimum wage towards feedback from the audience.
National Health and Nutrition Specialist and consultant Marcia Cameron, the former Executive Secretary/CEO of the Grenada Food & Nutrition Council (GFNC), led the discussion at the meeting at Corinth Government School in St David on Wednesday, 12 April 2023. Her appointment as national consultant on the project commenced on 29 November 2022. She is currently engaging key stakeholders and Grenadians to ensure everyone has input into the policy.
During her 10-minute presentation, Cameron highlighted the gaps in the previous policy, which now guides the process. She also addressed many factors that disrupt Grenada’s ability to have food security, including the prevailing high food import bill and the increasing prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases, which is still the leading cause of death among Grenadians. Cameron stressed that these conditions are all preventable, reversible and controllable and influenced by lifestyle factors, of which diet is one component.
“Data is now pointing to a growing increase in the prevalence of overweight in children between the ages of 0-5 years old in daycare and preschool settings. This trend puts this population at risk for obesity,” she said. “This epidemiological transition is linked to the dietary shift and other lifestyle factors among Grenadians. So what we have seen is a shift away from the consumption of foods that are locally grown and that are nutritious, to food and food products that are imported and highly processed with bad fats, high sugars and salts.”
Heads of the Government of Caricom are addressing efforts to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25% by 2025 by implementing the Caricom Agri-Food Systems Strategy, expected to help achieve this target by prioritising products such as poultry, corn, soya, meat (goat, sheep, beef), rice and niche vegetables which are highly imported products in the region.
Cameron stated that the prevailing minimum wage does affect food accessibility, one of the pillars of food and nutrition security. “Food accessibility is directly linked to your minimum wage issue because accessibility includes how you access food financially…you need to able to have an adequate amount of money to purchase food, and wage increases need to be accompanied by regulations to guarantee price control on nutritious and necessary food items,” she said.
The role that gender plays in income inequality is another major factor to be looked into.
“We also have some legislative and regulatory frameworks that need to be put in place to promote more equality among gender with regard to access and income. We have huge gaps in gender in terms of salary compensation. There is evidence of females with the same qualification as males, who are being paid less. This is also witnessed in agriculture; 71% of farmers are males. Women do not have the same access to productive resources or financial resources as men to support their livelihood,” she explained.
Additionally, data from The Living Conditions and Poverty and Equity Update, 2021, published by the World Bank, shows that extreme poverty is rising in Grenada and that many vulnerable households express concern about accessing food consistently. This report highlights that most poor households are single female-headed, and those are shown to be poorer than male-headed households.
Under the previous policy, 5 pillars were distilled: food availability, food access, food consumption/utilisation, stability and an enabling environment for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the policy and action plan. However, in the policy update, the conceptual framework has been expanded to include 2 new pillars: sustainability and agency. This expansion must be underpinned by the Right to Food in a legislative framework to affect the desired outcome. A key message from the FAO guidelines on the Right to Food explains the difference between food security and the right to food. “The main difference between the right to food and food security is the legal dimension: food security is acknowledged as a right and cannot be treated as a non-binding policy goal.”
The initial 5 dimensions of food security remain fundamental to the concept. However, as discussed in the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the Committee on World Food Security’s (CFS) 2020 report, they are inadequate for transforming food systems to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report references the emphasis placed on the importance of those 2 additional pillars, “agency” and “sustainability,” as vital dimensions of food security that flow directly from the principle of the right to food. As the report informs, agency in food systems is deeply connected to human rights, including the right to food. The right to food recognises agency as inherently about individual and community capabilities and freedoms.
Sustainability is essential to the concept of food security. It implies food system practices that respect and protect ecosystems — the very basis of the food system — over the long term, in their complex interaction with economic and social systems required for providing food security and nutrition.
To what extent will increases to the minimum wage improve the quantity and nutritional quality of food purchased by minimum-wage earners?
Cameron said this could be easily achieved if, alongside increasing the minimum wage, there are cost control measures on food items. Additionally, more education on a national level about selecting healthy foods and their benefits to health is needed. Aligning food prices of imported poorly nutritious foods with local high nutritious foods as incentives for purchasing is essential. A combination of interventions in the strategy would be instrumental.
“I endorse and congratulate the Government on its efforts to consider increasing the minimum wage,” she said. “It would be integral to this wage increase that mechanisms for cost control on food items as well as basic need expenditure such as housing, water, electricity, to be merged as part of this strategy to promote the intended outcome of greater affordability/access to an improved life experience for Grenadians.”
The consultant hopes these townhall meetings will “contribute to greater exposure and participation to promote wide stakeholdership.” She indicated that other sectors have come on board with significant contributions towards completing the final policy. “This is of stellar importance to ensure the final product is reflective of a Grenadian voice,” she emphasised.
What revolutionary action is needed to ensure this document is implemented and not shelved as with other policies?
The timeline for completing this project is 19 May 2023. Cameron hopes this policy document will be utilised effectively for the benefit of all stakeholders.
“It would be critical to engage the policymakers in this process, the lawmakers, the sector responsible for budgetary allocations, all public and private sector and organisations with responsibilities or mandates for food and nutrition security as well as NGOs, civil society, all food producers, processors, traders, distributors, consumers to the extent possible. The inclusionary approach has a greater possibility of buy-in and ownership and an increased likelihood of implementation. The Right to Food needs to be legislated. Additionally, the plan for implementation must propose a multi-sectoral and well-coordinated approach due to the complexity of Food and Nutrition Security and for conserving available resources,” she explained.
“There must also be a stringent monitoring and evaluation component to measure the effectiveness of the interventions and to seek additional resources for sustainability and permanent food and nutrition security.”
This is more mumbo jumbo than anything else.
There is no mention Grenada minimum wage should be. For example, $20 per hour.
However, should be more about a liveable wage.