Fourteen countries of the Community of Caribbean States (CARICOM) will design multiple projects to mobilise resources from international sources, which will allow them to improve the resilience and adaptation of their agriculture, food systems, and rural communities to change the climate.
The projects will be possible thanks to a new fund created by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).
José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO, and Luis Videgaray, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, signed the agreement that creates the fund today in Rome. The fund will have an initial budget of US$500,000 contributed in equal parts (US$250,000 each).
This capital will be used as a pre-investment resources that will mobilize millions of dollars for resilience and adaptation projects.
“Thanks to the support of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, 14 CARICOM countries will design 27 projects to mobilise resources against climate change,” explained José Graziano da Silva.
“We all know that the Caribbean is one of the region’s most vulnerable to climate change. We saw it in the last hurricane season when the islands of Dominica and Barbuda were practically destroyed,” said Videgaray during the signing.
The countries that will develop the projects are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Ten of the projects will be presented to the Green Climate Fund, twelve to the Global Environment Facility and five to various European Union mechanisms. They will focus on vulnerable rural communities facing climate risks.
Exchange of experts to improve institutions
The fund between Mexico and FAO will also support CARICOM countries develop their institutional and technical capacities for planning, decision-making and project management, to enable them to better cope with natural disasters and extreme weather events.
Mexican experts and specialists from FAO will work side-by-side with their Caribbean counterparts in the design and implementation of the projects.
“The fund is a combination of financial resources and human resources,” Videgaray explained.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico explained that the fund signed between FAO and Mexico is an agreement open to other countries.
“We already have the good news that the government of Canada is going to come on board with resources. And this is key because the challenge is enormous. We must recognise that the Caribbean is not generating climate change but that it is one of the most affected regions, so we all have the responsibility to contribute,” Videgaray explained.
Original source: CARICOM Today
Published on 14 June 2018
