Hon. Senator Simon Stiell, Minister for Climate Resilience, the Environment, Forestry, Fisheries, Disaster Management and Information, on Monday represented Prime Minister, Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell at the High-Level Conference on Building Resilience to Disaster and Climate Change in the Caribbean.
The conference, organised jointly by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, was attended by various Heads of Government and Cabinet Ministers from the Caribbean, representatives from the Caribbean Development Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as well as key stakeholders from donor countries and agencies.
Minister Stiell was a panelist at the first session on Taking Stock of Efforts to Build Resilience, where he spoke to the initiatives Grenada has undertaken to build the fiscal and infrastructural framework for true resilience.
The Minister emphasised the importance for member states, with the support of the international development community, to be more ambitious as they look towards scaling up in dealing with the climate adaptation and mitigation challenges.
He said this scaling up is necessary to build greater climate resilience in the Caribbean, along with the need for a more diversified, creative and blended grant and concessionary financing mechanism.
He stressed the importance of investing proactively in comprehensive resilience building in “good times” when countries have the time and fiscal space to do so.
Monday’s conference provided decision-makers in the region with a platform to clearly begin the shift from policy towards concrete action in partnership with the funds, the international financial institutions and donor countries, focusing on innovative disaster risk financing policies and a streamlined mechanism for accessing climate resilience funding.
