Place resilience at the core

Efforts by Barbados to push the issue of resiliency financing have been lauded as innovative.

UK Development Director for the Caribbean, Malcolm Geere says it was no easy feat to get creditors onboard to include natural disaster and pandemic clauses.

Barbados had previously stated the implementation of these clauses in the wake of a disaster is critical to a country’s recovery post impact.

According to Mr. Geere, the Disaster Resilience Clause has become a major plank of UK policy now as it seeks to get multilateral development banks to include this in their loans to developing countries.

He was at the time delivering a lecture on Responding to the Climate Resilience Challenge in the Caribbean by the Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work hosted by the University of the West Indies.

Given the risks involved, Mr. Geere says the Caribbean must place resilience at the core.

He says size matters when a country is confronting a major natural disaster.

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