Strengthening Disaster Recovery and Resilience in the Caribbean

“The Caribbean is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, with the annual average cost of damage from natural disasters estimated at about 2.5 percent of GDP, six times higher than for larger states and three times higher than for other (non-island) small states.

"[Recent climate disasters] reinforce the importance and urgency of strengthening national and regional capacities to prepare for and respond to shocks as well as the increasing risk posed by climate change for Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean”, wrote the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (UK FCDO) in its annual review of its program on “Strengthening Disaster Recovery and Resilience in the Caribbean”.

This program includes the work of the IMF’s Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Center on climate and disaster risk financial protection of society and state – rated A+ in the review – which “helps its member countries develop policy frameworks that incorporate the risk and cost of natural disasters in macro frameworks and debt sustainability analysis; strengthens financial sector resilience; and builds capacity to access insurance and financial markets to manage disaster risks”.

The review notes that “initial work in Belize, Grenada, St. Lucia and Dominica, to pilot Climate Change Policy Assessments (conducted jointly with the World Bank) contained in-depth assessments of financing and investment needs and provided a road map for formulating disaster resilience strategies for climate change adaptation […].

?“On fiscal issues, for public financial management work, the pilots have also led to the development of a climate-related module in Public Investment Management Assessments (PIMA). Climate PIMAs focus on issues such as (i) climate-aware planning—whether public investment is planned considering climate change policies, (ii) coordination between entities—how decision making on climate-related investment is coordinated across the public sector, (iii) project appraisal and selection—in particular the reflection of climate related analysis and criteria, (iv) budgeting and portfolio management—how the government’s portfolio of climate related public investment projects is managed, and (v) risk management—how the government identifies and manages its fiscal risk exposure associated with public investment that could be impacted by climate change and natural disasters.

“To further support training in member countries, a climate module is now part of the newly launched Inclusive Growth online course, and work is ongoing to develop a model-based framework on mitigation and adaptation.”

The International Monetary Fund thanks the UK FCDO for its generous support to climate and disaster risk financial protection in the Caribbean —alongside our other capacity development partners—, which led to important milestones in past months.

Find out more on CARTAC and its technical assistance and training related to climate and other topics reading its last annual report https://www.cartac.org/content/dam/CARTAC/AnnualReports/CARTAC_FY21_Annual-Report_Final%20(2).pdf.