Caribbean & Central America - March 2023

***PROGRESS ON FOOD SECURITY. On 3 February, at the first Caribbean Community (Caricom) Ministerial Taskforce (MTF) on Food Production and Food Security meeting, it was announced that member states had achieved 57% of the target of reducing the regional import bill by 25% by the year 2025. It was reported that a number of key products had achieved especially good progress towards their production targets for 2025, namely cocoa (96.13%), dairy (84.36%), meat (72.28%), root crops (70.91%), fruits (70.77%), and poultry (70.19%).

***THE BAHAMAS IN BIG PUSH IN 2023 TO REDUCE CORRUPTION. In Transparency International’s latest Corruptions Perception Index (CPI), The Bahamas ranked as the 30^th least corrupt nation, and the second least corrupt in the Caribbean after Barbados, retaining its score of 64 out of 100, when the higher the score means the lower the incidence of corruption. Nevertheless, Nassau intends to implement reforms during 2023 to further improve the country’s ranking.

The measures planned for this year include reforms to the Public Procurement Act and the Public Disclosures Act. Also planned is legislation to create an Integrity Commission and an Ombudsman, both of which were 2021 manifesto pledges by the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).