The fifth webinar of the FAO-COVID-19 and Food Systems Series, co-organized with the strategic collaboration of the CARICOM Secretariat, focused on “Enabling agricultural investment in the Caribbean for an effective response and post-COVID-19 recovery”. The webinar took place on Thursday, 7 May 2020 - 12:00 PM Barbados time (UTC -4), with a foreword by Julio Berdegué, FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, and by Renata Clarke, FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for the Caribbean (SLC).

Speakers:

• Máximo Torero Cullen - Chief Economist and Assistant Director General of FAO, Economic and Social Department (ES-FAO) "Coronavirus: The Food Supply Chain Under Pressure What Can We Do?"
• Saboto Caesar - Minister of Agriculture, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Chair of CARICOM Agriculture Sector COVID-19 Response Task Force "CARICOM COVID-19 Food and Security Action Plan Coordination and Implementation"
• Joseph Cox - CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration Blueprint for Transitioning to Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery
• Patrick Antoine - Caribbean Private Sector Organization Representative “Private Sector Leading Growth in the Region in a post COVID-19 world”

Selected experts will pose questions following the presentations:

• Michael Clifton Pintard, Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, the Bahamas Jeremy Stephen, Economist
• Lystra Fletcher-Paul, FAO Former Sub-regional Coordinator SRC-SLC

This initiative is part of the agreement made between 11 international organizations present in the region to coordinate their actions and provide technical support to governments in order to keep agri-food trade alive, expand social protection systems, reach common sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and increase intraregional trade.