BARBADOS-CHILDREN-UNICEF monitoring impact of cost of living on region’s children 

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - A top official at the Barbados office of the United Nation Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) says the UN is concerned about the impact which the rising cost of living is having on children and other vulnerable groups throughout the Caribbean.

UNICEF Representative at the Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Tom Olsen, told reporters at a media exchange on Wednesday that governments need to do more to mitigate the effects of the global problem on children.

“What do you do in the meantime? I think that’s where you have to get a government that is proactive. Government needs to be on top of it as well and having mechanisms in place to ensure that there are fair prices out there,” he said.

“I hear many people talking and saying ‘I don’t understand because last week the food prices were like this’…They come in the shop today and food prices have gone up and no container has come into the port. I would say somebody is doing business on it,” he added.

Olsen said UNICEF’s office in Barbados has to come up with a strategy to offer assistance to children and families affected by the increasing food prices.

“When we are responding to it we want to do it adequately with facts and data and not only making statements. I think we need some time to develop that kind of strategy to see how we can deal with the increase in food prices and the impact on children and the most vulnerable groups,” the UN official added.

He noted that the issue of high food prices is bigger than the region, pointing to the fact that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has established a special committee to deal with the issues.

CMC/la/dmb/08