Canadian action on building resilience in the Caribbean

Climate Change Action for Gender-Sensitive Resilience
Funding: $15M (2018-2023)
Implementing Partner: UNDP

• This project will help improve climate resilience for vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls, in nine Caribbean countries.
• It will provide technical experts to Caribbean ministries, national agencies, and regional bodies responsible for climate change and disaster preparation.
• It will support the development of gender-responsive project proposals for climate financing.
• It will also help develop sector and national gender-sensitive action plans, based on Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) guidelines.
• This project is part of Canada’s $100 million Pledge for Caribbean Reconstruction and Climate Resilience.
• Countries that benefit from this initiative are: Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, and Suriname.

Canada-Caribbean Resilience Facility
Funding: $20M (2018-2023)
Implementing Partner: World Bank

• This project will build the capacity of Caribbean countries to strengthen their long-term resilience and ability to build back better following natural disasters.
• This facility will deploy local and international experts to help governments develop
  gender-responsive disaster risk management policies and plans.
• It will also help countries to identify and access emergency funding for post-disaster recovery activities.
• Countries that will benefit are: Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, and Suriname.

Support for Public Financial Management

On November 18, 2018 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau announced $20M in new funding for increased technical assistance and capacity development in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including for public financial management, financial sector supervisory capacity and inclusive growth.

In close partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Canada has been championing a more responsive approach to the needs of women in the management of public finances, including through projects that target gender-responsive planning and budgeting.

Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC)
Funding: $5M (2017-2022)
Implementing Partner: IMF

• This increase to Canada’s contribution to Phase V of CARTAC will help reduce CARTAC’s funding shortfall.
• This is an IMF regional centre that aims to strengthen fiscal and economic management.
• IMF technical assistance and training is provided to support tax and customs administrations, public financial management, regulation and supervision of the financial sector, statistics, and macro-economic programming and analysis.
• CARICOM and associate member states will benefit from this initiative (21 countries).

Enhancing Public Financial Management (EPFM)
Funding: $6M (2017-2023)
Implementing Partner: IMF

• This increase to Canada’s contribution to the EPFM will enable a rapid response through targeted technical assistance as follows:
  • Fund long-term fiscal policy advisors to Barbados in support of the Barbados IMF macroeconomic program
  • Finance the deployment of technical advisors to improve Caribbean countries’ regulatory and financial sector supervisory capacity to reduce vulnerabilities associated with the decline of correspondent banking relationships
  • Assist debt managers to build institutional capacity in public financial and debt management
• EPFM is a Canada-funded initiative that aims to improve the capacity of national institutions to better manage public finances in the face of rising financial vulnerabilities. The initiative currently supports two packages of technical assistance to countries undergoing deepening financial and debt vulnerabilities and potentially subject to Extended Fund Facility Arrangements: one in Jamaica and the other in Eastern Caribbean.
• Countries that benefit from this initiative are: Jamaica, Belize, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent & Grenadines.

Canada’s Technical Assistance Sub-Account
Funding: $9M
Implementing Partner: IMF

• The allocation to the technical assistance sub-account at the IMF will provide the Government of Canada with an ability to respond rapidly to emerging requests and priorities for technical assistance in the coming months and years. This remaining $9M would be used to support SIDS – and low-income countries more generally – with technical assistance priorities such as public financial management and financial sector regulation. This new technical assistance would be complementary to the technical assistance already being delivered to the Caribbean and Middle East and North Africa regions, and would inform new areas of focus for technical assistance in other SIDs or Least Developed Countries.