The University of the West Indies

Food Sovereignty and Sustainability Partnership

The Food Sovereignty and Sustainability Partnership was created to address the flooding of a biodiverse garden called Food Park. On March 19th, 2025, a stakeholder meeting was held to create a the public/ private/ academic partnership for Food Sovereignty and Sustainable Development. The Food Park was the ecological product of the “Adopt a Community for Food Security Initiative”; a multiple workshop series (17 March -8 June 2024) on home gardening developed for a UWI community stakeholder. For this workshop, Dr Patricia Jaggasar, facilitated by the Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture (Professor Mark Wuddivira), brought together university, private sector, government, and community stakeholders.

The current focus of the partnership is to create a living laboratory, a demonstration site and community innovation hub for food sovereignty and sustainable development; while simultaneously addressing predial larceny, youth unemployment, and related social challenges through education, livelihood creation, community engagement, and sustainable development initiatives.

The mission of the Food Sovereignty and Sustainability Partnership is to advance food sovereignty and sustainable development by mobilizing the knowledge, resources, and capacities of universities, communities, government agencies, and private-sector partners to address community-defined opportunities and challenges.

Through collaborative research, student engagement, sustainable agriculture, ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation, entrepreneurship, and the preservation and application of traditional knowledge, they seek to strengthen community well-being, create sustainable livelihoods, enhance environmental stewardship, and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The program is committed to building resilient socioecological systems that connect people, institutions, and natural resources while creating opportunities for present and future generations

Fun Facts About the Food Sovereignty and Sustainability Partnership

The partnership with Carifarms offers students a rare opportunity to engage with a living laboratory that challenges conventional assumptions about shared resources by exploring how commons-based approaches can advance sustainability, food sovereignty, and community development.

The program is developing a living laboratory for food sovereignty, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and rural development in Trinidad and Tobago. This is built on the Food Park Model, an innovative socioecological approach that integrates food production, environmental stewardship, education, and community development.

CARIFARMS serves as a bridge between academia, communities, government agencies, and the private sector through public-private-academic partnerships. The site includes initiatives in sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, pollinator conservation, medicinal and culinary spices, and climate resilient food systems. Students have opportunities to work on real-world challenges affecting Caribbean communities, including youth unemployment, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and rural development.