The Montserrat Reporter

WASHINGTON, Jun. 20,   CMC – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched a call for proposals that will reward the most disruptive ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean that are using innovation to improve lives.

The Washington-based financial institution said the selected startups will participate in Demand Solutions Chile, which will take place on November 21 in Santiago, Chile.

Demand Solutions is the IDB’s flagship innovation event that brings together “the world’s most forward-thinking minds to share creative solutions to the development challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the statement said.

In this edition, the IDB said startups can participate in two thematic areas.

In the first, they must provide solutions in four categories related to the cultural and creative industries: Design with social sense: sustainable fashion, smart fashion, urban art, wearable technology; and multimedia that improves lives: videogames, digital content, audiovisual content.

The other categories are: New technologies: 3D printing, blockchain, internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics; and export of services to global markets: production and commercialization of cultural content, export of goods and creative services.

The IDB said the 10 most innovative startups in the creative industries will be selected to participate in Demand Solutions Chile with all expenses paid for one representative per startup.

The first place will receive financial support to continue with its development, the IDB said.

Additionally, the IDB said this edition of Demand Solutions will also reward five startups that provide solutions to water and sanitation challenges in the region.

Since 2009, the IDB said along with Fundación FEMSA it was awarded the Water and Sanitation Prize for Latin America and the Caribbean “to recognize and stimulate the most innovative solutions in the water, sanitation and solid waste sectors.”

The startups interested in participating in Demand Solutions must present a solution proposal to a development challenge before July 15, the IDB said.

It said the representatives must be over 18 years old.

Winners will be notified by mail in early September 2018.

SANTIAGO, Chile, Jun 15, CMC – At least 14 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries will design multiple projects to mobilize resources from international sources allowing them to improve the resilience and adaptation of their agriculture, food systems and rural communities to change climate.

The projects will be funded under a new initiative created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).

FAO Director General, José Graziano da Silva, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Luis Videgaray, signed the agreement that creates the fund with an initial budget of US$500,000.

They said that the money 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 mobilize resources against climate change,” said the FAO Director General.

“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 agreement in Rome.

The countries that will develop the projects are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Ten of the projects will be presented to the Green Climate Fund, 12 to the Global Environment Facility and five to various European Union mechanisms. They will focus on vulnerable rural communities facing climate risks.

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, the FAO said.

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 said.

Both the FAO and Mexico say building resilience requires improving the quality of infrastructure through actions such as rectification and strengthening of river channels and burying power lines, but these are expensive investments and the Caribbean countries do not always have the necessary capital to implement them.

“That’s where international funds come in. This initiative from Mexico and FAO will allow countries to obtain much needed resources that are currently available but that many times Caribbean countries cannot access, because their projects have to improve from a technical standpoint,” Videgaray said.

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 recognize 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 added.

WASHINGTON, Jun. 17, CMC – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says an increase of more than 20 per cent from the previous year by the world’s six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) has boosted projects that help the Caribbean and other developing countries cut emissions and address climate risks.

The Washington-based financial institution said climate financing by the MDBs rose to a seven-year high of US$35.2 billion in 2017, up more than 20 per cent from the previous year.

The MDBs’ latest joint report on climate financing said US$27.9 billion, or 79 per cent of the 2017 total, was devoted to climate mitigation projects that aim to reduce harmful emissions and slow down global warming.

The remaining 21 per cent or US$7.4 billion of financing for emerging and developing nations was invested in climate adaptation projects that help economies deal with the effects of climate change, such as unusual levels of rain, worsening droughts and extreme weather events, the IDB said.

The IDB said that in 2016,  climate financing from the MDBs had totaled US$27.4 billion.

The latest MDB climate finance figures are detailed in the 2017 “Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance,” combining data from the African Development Bank , the Asian Development Bank , the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank , the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB and IDB Invest) and the World Bank Group (World Bank, IFC and MIGA).

The IDB said these banks account for the vast majority of multilateral development finance.

In October 2017, the IDB said the Islamic Development Bank joined the MDB climate finance tracking groups, adding that their climate finance figures will be included in reports from 2018 onwards.

The IDB said climate funds, such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) , the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF) , the European Union’s funds for Climate Action and others have also played “an important role in boosting MDB climate finance.”

In addition to the US$35.2 billion of multilateral development finance, the IDB said the same adaptation and mitigation projects attracted an additional US$51.7 billion from other sources of financing last year.

Of the 2017 total, 81 per cent was provided as investment loans, the IDB said.

Other types of financial instruments included policy-based lending, grants, guarantees, equity and lines of credit.

Juan Pablo Bonilla, IDB’s manager of the Climate Change and Sustainability Sector, said the bank channeled nearly US$800 million principally to increase resilience of water-related operations and other built infrastructure.

Bonilla said the region, Sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia and the Pacific were the three major developing regions receiving the funds.

“In 2017, Latin America and Caribbean ranked highest among world regions accessing MDB climate finance,” said Gema Sacristán, IDB’s chief investment officer. “This represents an unprecedented and steady increase for the Latin America and Caribbean region over the last two years, with the IDB Group as the region’s partner of choice for investing sustainably in the region.”

The IDB said climate finance addresses the specific financial flows for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.

“These activities contribute to make MDB finance flows consistent with a pathway toward low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development, in line with the Paris Agreement,” the IDB said.

It said the MDBs are currently working on the development of more specific approaches to reporting their activities and how they are aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands,  CMC – Caribbean health officials have concluded a two-day meeting at which the impact of the 2017 hurricane season was reviewed.

The Government of the British Virgin Islands (BVcaI)  in a statement on Wednesday said member states of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reviewed the hurricanes’ effect during a two-day “After Action Review (AAR)” meeting that ended on Tuesday.

During this meeting, health representatives from the impacted countries of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands and the BVI also developed a plan for improving health response in the Caribbean region, the statement noted.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development in the BVI, Petrona Davies said that, as one of the hardest hit jurisdictions, it was “most fitting that the workshop was convened in the BVI.”

She said delegates could witness firsthand not only the lingering effects but also the “incipient challenges arising from complex issues that BVI residents have been forced to confront on an unprecedented scale, such as debris management and housing recovery.

“For the health sector, the landscape in which we are operating is changing, and we must continually adapt in order to meet evolving needs,” Davies said. “But there are some things that remain constant, such as our longstanding relationship with PAHO.

“I am honored to have this opportunity to acknowledge PAHO’s sterling contributions to the people of the Virgin Islands and the region in our disaster relief and recovery efforts,” she added.

Head of the PAHO Team and Regional Health Advisor, Dr. Dana van Alphen, said “the After Action Review,” was “an opportunity to speak openly as a group to identify the issues that arose and to capture the things that worked well. 

“We have to learn from our mistakes and be in a position to address the coordination challenges, as well as arrive at consensus on how to move forward and prepare for what may affect us in the future,” said van Alphen, calling for greater focus on early recovery.

She underscored the importance of having a thorough rapid assessment to guide the recovery process and to alleviate the confusion that is usually seen in this phase.

“Many priorities emerge following a disaster but we must depend on the data that is captured in the rapid assessment phase to guide these priorities,” she said.

“Some of these priorities are difficult to achieve,” van Alphen added. “Debris Management is one of the most challenging areas to address.  The resources are primarily in the private sector, and they are not cheap. 

She said a plan to engage the private sector and to finance this aspect is “critical,” stating that “this is not a function to be performed by a single government entity. 

“It must be seen as a cross-ministry approach and a major activity needed to achieve early recovery outcomes,” the PAHO official said.

The BVI Government statement said the “After Action Review” meeting allowed for various presentations to be delivered including the experience of a renowned Non-Government Organization, Americares that works to improve health for affected people. 

The organization provided significant support to Dominica post-hurricane Maria, the statement said.

Presentations were made by health officials from impacted islands.

The Department of Disaster Management (DDM) presented on the “Building Back Better Process” and the connections with a SMART Approach, “which provides a methodology for connecting resiliency, environmental protection and health,” the statement said.

It said DDM officials also led a panel discussion on logistics and relief distribution.

One of the main outcomes of the two-day session, facilitated by PAHO in collaboration with the DDM, was a discussion and a plan for preparing for the 2018 Hurricane Season.

The AAR meeting will be followed by a meeting of Health Disaster Coordinators, which will be held in Barbados in two weeks.

IICA said that its Director General Manuel Otero in keeping with the objectives expressed by regional leaders during the just concluded inter-sessional summit in Haiti, emphasized that the Institute pursues objectives similar to those outlined at the meeting.

He said the fact that, as an organization entrusted with promoting agricultural development in the Americas, IICA’s work focuses on creating a more productive, inclusive and resilient agriculture.

“IICA, along with the President of Haiti, (Jovenel Moise) recognizes the region’s vulnerability to the severe effects of climate change, reflected in droughts, major hurricanes and floods, which are the most visible and increasingly intense phenomena experienced in the Caribbean and Central America.

“In this regard, it is timely to recall that strengthening cooperation in areas vulnerable to natural disasters was one of the concrete results achieved during the recent visit by the Director General of IICA to Ottawa, Canada, where agreements were reached with prestigious and active organizations such as the International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to increase urgent and committed actions to tackle the most destructive effects of climate change on family agriculture.”

IICA said that these same objectives were discussed earlier this week in Washington by Otero and the Deputy Director General of IICA, Lloyd Day during meetings with private sector representatives and with high-ranking officials of the United States government and multilateral credit organizations.

The statement noted that in response to the concerns expressed by CARICOM leaders, IICA will continue its efforts to strengthen South-South cooperation by promoting increased exchanges of knowledge and experiences and intraregional trade to mitigate the region’s vulnerability to the devastating effects of natural disasters.

“IICA also acknowledges the efforts of the member states of CARICOM and congratulates them for the agreement signed in Port-au-Prince, aimed at supporting the reconstruction of the countries affected by hurricanes Irma, Maria and Matthew, in the context of their public policies to promote institutional strengthening, actions to mitigate natural disasters and resilience to climate change,” the statement added.