On 29 September 2025, the Kingston Team of the MiFOOD network held an online workshop entitled ‘Measuring Food Security in Caribbean SIDS’. The half-day workshop was organized to reflect on measures of food security at different scales – the household, city, nation, and region, within a Caribbean context.
The motivation behind the workshop arose from findings of desk research conducted as part of the Women Feeding Cities project. Research indicates that there are different measures of food security in Jamaica, and other Caribbean countries, further that these points of divergence have implications for comparative analysis and policy design. The workshop was therefore organized to critically discuss methodologies for measuring food security, as well as examine opportunities for comparative analysis given distinct approaches in food security measures by governments and institutional stakeholders in the Caribbean region.
Prof Jonathan Crush, Principal Investigator of MiFOOD, delivered opening remarks after the event was opened by Prof Lloyd Waller, Director, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), University of the West Indies (Mona) and the Mona Campus Registrar, Dr Donovan Stanberry, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Jamaica, with academic expertise in food security.
In addition to a presentation by Dr Natalie Dietrich Jones from the MiFOOD Kingston Team, Ms Nichole Allen and Ms Abigail Durand, from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica and the World Food Programme (WFP) (Barbados), respectively, also delivered presentations. Dr Dietrich Jones reflected on the peculiarities of Caribbean SIDS and shared findings of the MiFOOD Workstream 1 study ‘Food (in)accessibility among remittance receiving households in Kingston in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’. Ms Allen discussed the differences between food poverty and food security measures in the Jamaican context and noted the recent transition to the use of Food Insecurity Experience Scale in upcoming Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions. Ms Durand presented the findings of the 2025 Caribbean Food Security and Livelihoods Survey conducted by the WFP. Ms Durand also discussed how qualitative data collection and the use of AI large language models can enhance quantitative survey findings.
The presentations were followed by a plenary discussion, which included critical reflection on the advantages of the various methodologies presented, as well as implications for policy design. Two key points raised were: (i) the need for instruments which are appropriate to context, including disaster scenarios; and (ii) the importance of tailored interventions (in particular, for the vulnerable), based on survey findings.
Over 50 people attended the session. Attendees included members of the MiFOOD network, UWI faculty and students, representatives from Caribbean NGOs working in food security, as well as government stakeholders.
