From October 20 to 24, 2025, Vernet Joseph, Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, will participate in the 53rd session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which is taking place in Rome, Italy.

In his address, Minister Joseph painted a grim picture of the food situation in Haiti, while affirming his confidence in a way out of the crisis, thanks to appropriate national policies and international solidarity.

The Minister first expressed the gratitude of the Haitian government and people to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and bilateral and multilateral partners for their continued support in the face of the immense challenges the country has faced for several decades : political instability, insecurity, natural disasters, economic stagnation, and a worsening food crisis, among others.

Vernet Joseph, illustrating the situation, pointed out that by June 2025, nearly 5.7 million Haitians, almost half the population, were living in a situation of acute food insecurity, including 2.8 million children.

Emphasizing "Despite this critical situation, Haiti remains standing, because hunger is not inevitable; It is a challenge that we have chosen to meet with courage, determination, clarity, and faith," he added, adding that the Haitian government recently integrated the principles of the CFS Framework for Action into its public policies, in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - Haiti), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Union (EU), the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This initiative aims to strengthen family farming, encourage rural entrepreneurship among youth and women, improve access to markets, and support nutrition and school feeding.

To better illustrate the efforts of the current administration, the Minister highlighted the significant progress made with the National School Meals Program, which currently benefits between 1.2 and 1.6 million students. He also mentioned a nutrition program based on local procurement, funded to the tune of $10 million by the IDB and WFP, currently underway in the north and northeast of the country. New funding of $13 million, expected by the end of the year, will expand this initiative to other departments, emphasizing, "These actions demonstrate that resilience is first built on our own fields, in our villages, with our producers."

The Minister concluded his speech with an urgent call for more coherent international cooperation, more substantial funding, and increased support for the structural transformation of Haiti's food systems. He also advocated for an inclusive approach in which local communities fully participate in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs that affect them.

HL/ HaitiLibre