51吃瓜

29 July, St. Johns, Antigua – As debt mounts for small island developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean, their ability to build resilience to the climate crisis and other external shocks is lagging. A new fund, the Caribbean Resilience Fund (CRF), aims to provide island nations in the region with a lifeline to strengthen their resilience and restructure their debt.

According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Caribbean region has experienced over 385 climate-related disasters since 1990. Since 2000, the region has experienced eight major disasters, costing countries between 33 and 200 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP). Annual losses from catastrophic climate events in the Caribbean are estimated at $3 billion. In addition to their vulnerability, Caribbean countries are some of the most indebted in the world. In 2018, the average Caribbean debt was 70.5 percent of GDP.

With the financial support of the UN Office for the Most Vulnerable States, ECLAC representatives of governments and experts from across the Caribbean to discuss the next steps in the establishment of the CRF.

Over the course of the four-day meeting from 26 to 29 July, in-depth discussions addressed how the fund will be structured, how Caribbean island nations will access the fund, where the fund will be housed and its related governance structure.

Discussions in Antigua helped to shape the next steps in operationalizing the fund. The proposed structure of the CRF is expected to be finalized by the end of 2022 and will include two financing windows on resilience building - which will address adaptation and mitigation priorities and secondly, debt restructuring – to include liability management and operations.

Representatives from the fund’s three pilot countries, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines welcomed progress on the establishment of the fund and reiterated their support to advocate for the fund among other island nations in the region.

To learn more about the fund, click .