The Caribbean Development Bank will administer a US$20 million Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund with funds from Canada to help communities reduce natural hazard risks and take climate change adaptation measures.
7 March 2012: The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has reported that it will administer a US$20 million Community Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Fund, which is to be established for Caribbean countries with funds from Canada. The Fund is intended to help Caribbean countries reduce risks, at the community level, posed to vulnerable populations by natural hazards and climate change.
The Fund will assist Bank member countries, except Haiti, to implement sub-projects to reduce natural hazard risks and take climate change adaptation measures. The Fund will aim to, inter alia: enable communities to develop experience-based knowledge gained through demonstration projects to fill national and regional knowledge gaps; develop disaster risk management and climate change adaptation guidelines for country poverty assessments; and disseminate the knowledge gained.
On 7 March 2012, the CDB Board of Directors approved entering into an agreement with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to accept the financing. The CDB will contribute US$2 million to the Fund.
The 17 countries that can benefit from the Fund are: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. [CDB Press Release]