Issue #11 July 2012 Projecthighlights Saint George’s Inner Harbour in Grenada. Building Climate Resilience in the Eastern Caribbean Regional Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Program Vulnerable Islands, Vulnerable Ivan caused damages estimated upwards of US$900 Economies million in Grenada—equivalent to 200 percent of the country’s GDP (2003). Grenada also lost two-thirds of The increasing pace of climate change will continue to its housing stock. One estimate predicts that, if current have negative impacts on the people, environments, trends continue, disaster events like Hurricane Ivan and economies of the Eastern Caribbean islands. Rising will become more frequent, and the region will lose sea levels, increasing influx of hurricanes, high winds, an estimated US$350-870 million annually between drought, torrential rains and landslides coupled with a 2015 and 2050.1 limited human and technical capacity, a finite natural To address these challenges and reduce their resource base, and fragile ecosystems will increase the vulnerability, the Eastern Caribbean countries will need demand for reducing inherent climate vulnerability to improve their understanding of the risk of natural in the region. Collectively, these hazards reduce the hazards, take the appropriate measures, and enhance ability of the Eastern Caribbean governments and their monitoring and land-planning practices. To help their people to defend recent progress in economic mitigate the effects of future hazards, they will also growth and poverty reduction as well as improve their need to strengthen key national infrastructure, such potential for sustained development. as bridges, roads and sea walls. These investments Due mostly to external factors, Eastern Caribbean will require large amounts of technical assistance and countries’ national budgets are often over-stretched. financing. Therefore, the ability of the governments to This is, in part, because they are burdened by debts access climate funds will be critical. resulting from repeatedly having to rebuild after major 1 Burke, L. and Maidens, J. 2004. Reefs at Risk in the natural disasters. For example, in 2004, Hurricane Caribbean. Washington, DC, World Resources Institute. www.worldbank.org/lcrdrm www.gfdrr.org There remains an urgent need to World Bank for the region. More importantly, the RDVRP Projecthighlights signifies a shift from business as usual in the Caribbean as improve the information-base with it takes a core development-planning approach that is led by regard to the risks posed by climate the respective ministries of finance. Due to their relatively high per capita income and small change impacts in the Caribbean and population size, Eastern Caribbean countries do not have access the capacity of adaptation options to to significant financing. Therefore, projects in the Caribbean are usually small and targeted sector-specific interventions. cope with different levels of climate The RDVRP is enabling the governments of Grenada and change, so as to enable greater Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to simultaneously address their infrastructure needs and build capacity to identify and evidence-based adaptation assistance analyze climate risks at the country level. For the first time in from the international community. the Eastern Caribbean, the RDVRP is providing the financing to make a tangible impact—at both at the national and regional —Jim Joseph, National Geodata Coordinator Coordinator, levels. An investment of this size and comprehensive nature Saint Lucia. will yield benefits of regional learning, climate resilience, and disaster risk reduction for years to come. The Eastern Caribbean countries also understand that they must face these challenges together. As former British A Regional Approach colonies and members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS),2 they share a common language, In order to build upon ongoing collaboration and geographical, currency, colonial history and economic union. Their political political, and institutional similarities, the RDVRP is also and institutional arrangements are similar, as are their designed to strengthen the region’s collective resilience geographical characteristics. They are also vulnerable to to climate change and natural hazards. The participating one-another’s external shocks. As demonstrated by Hurricane countries identified territorial planning and infrastructure as Ivan, when one country is devastated by an extreme climatic the two thematic focus areas most critical to building climate event such as a hurricane or drought, it directly affects resilience. Through this regional approach, the RDVRP aims neighboring islands’ economies. This relationship provides to create a platform for knowledge exchange. the basis for a two-tiered approach to disaster vulnerability Critical to improving territorial (land use and physical) reduction, supporting measures at both the national and planning processes is improving the way in which hazard, regional levels in parallel. risk and climate data are managed. For this reason, in October 2011, the government of Grenada hosted “an RDVRP- Supporting Resilient Investments sponsored workshop aimed at finding ways to improve data management and data sharing within governments and The World Bank and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are throughout the region. During the workshop, participants committed to supporting the efforts of Eastern Caribbean addressed the technical challenges of national and regional countries to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and geospatial data management. Facilitated by the Labs team anticipated impacts of climate variability. On June 23, 2011, from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery the World Bank Board approved the US$47 million Regional (GFDRR),4 participants were introduced to the GeoNode Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (RDVRP) for Grenada software platform as a data sharing management tool and and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The project’s financing explored its technical applications as well as the requirements is a combination of World Bank International Development to foster improved national and regional data sharing and Association (IDA) credits and climate financing supported collaboration.5 The workshop supported the creation of an by the CIF through the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR).3 This is the largest project ever supported by the resilience can be integrated into core development planning and implementation. The PPCR includes nine country pilots 2 Formed in 1981, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, (OECS) is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to Tajikistan, Yemen, Zambia) and two regional pilot programs in the economic harmonization and integration, protection of human Eastern Caribbean and the South Pacific. and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance 4 Founded in July 2010, the mission of the GFDRR Labs is to use between countries and dependencies in the Eastern Caribbean. science, technology, and innovation to better empower decision- The seven member states are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, makers in the developing world to increase their resilience to Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint disasters in a changing climate. The Labs strategy is to build Vincent and the Grenadines. partnerships and communities that utilize open data and open 3 The PPCR is a targeted program under the Strategic Climate source technology to assist decision-making. Fund. The PPCR demonstrates ways in which climate risk and 5 http://geonode.org/about/ 2 Projecthighlights Road damage in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines after Hurricane Community in Georgetown overlooking effects of heavy rains and Thomas in October 2010. flooding on Saint Vincent Island in March 2011. online community of practice of geospatial practitioners, and infrastructure, (ii) hazard and risk evaluations and information technology specialists and regional development applications to improve decision making and building partners to continue discussions on data-related issues and practices, and (iii) an emergency recovery and rehabilitation ways to improve regional collaboration. mechanism to re-categorize financing or provide additional Following the workshop on improving data management, financing in the case of a national emergency. the government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines hosted In parallel, the World Bank is collaborating with the a workshop on building more climate resilient infrastructure. Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) at a regional level, Participants discussed options for improving building codes, through the CIF-supported PPCR, to strengthen the capacity design standards, and construction materials. As an outcome of Caribbean countries to integrate climate resilience of the workshop, engineers from the respective ministries of into development planning. This regional program will be works established a regional community of practice. Together, implemented by regional agencies in the Caribbean, and aims to they are working out a way, with support from the World Bank scale up and leverage climate resilient investments by building in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), on other ongoing initiatives. With support from the regional to create harmonized building codes and design standards. agencies, the program will provide a strategic framework to In an effort to improve regional sharing and integration of channel donor funding and foster regional partnerships—which knowledge and expertise, future collaboration will include all Dominica and Saint Lucia are also directly participating and Eastern Caribbean countries. plan to join the RDVRP in the coming months. Strategic Investments for Development Planning The establishment of a Sub- Over the course of the last few decades, Grenada and Saint Regional Engineering Association Vincent and the Grenadines have suffered from an increasing number of disasters resulting from climate-related events, would help us (Eastern Caribbean) such as hurricanes, landslides, rainfall and drought. These get to the level where we can use the disasters have caused significant and recurrent damage to these countries’ housing and infrastructure, with significant same codes and standards throughout impacts on human welfare and the economy. the region. This will facilitate a more In response, the RDVRP is enabling the governments of Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to embark competitive private sector while on a proactive approach to reducing climate risks and simultaneously ensuring more climate strengthening the capacity of their national infrastructure, institutions and people to cope with the negative impacts resilient infrastructure. of climate variability. The RDVRP’s approach includes (i) —Cecil Harris, Chief Technical Officer, Ministry of Works, prevention and adaptation investments in public buildings Grenada. 3 Projecthighlights Vulnerable housing resettlement at La Sagesse and Bausejour, Grenada after Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The RDVRP will improve the governments’ understanding A Safer Environment for the Future of where, and how to build in a changing climate. A variety of approaches will be tested and will provide best practices The Eastern Caribbean governments and the World Bank for watershed management, flood mitigation, legislation, recognize that the RDVRP is an important step in providing advocacy, coastal zone management, slope stabilization and a safe environment for the people of the region. Under the climate resilience. This approach will benefit the Eastern project, government agencies will strengthen their hazard Caribbean community, first, by strengthening institutions monitoring and risk identification systems, which will facilitate and human capacity, and, second by better integrating improved policies and planning to confront future hazards. natural hazard and climate risk considerations into Policy makers, government specialists, and communities will planning processes. Although the project will produce many be better informed and able to use the information for better tangible products, such as detailed hazard maps, its main decision making. Governments will incur fewer economic achievement will be a greater knowledge and awareness losses and communities will be better prepared and resilient among government policy makers, technical specialists, and to impacts. Collectively, these investments will provide the practitioners of climate and disaster risk management, of enabling environment for broader economic development how to plan for an uncertain future. and improved livelihoods for populations in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as the Eastern Caribbean region as a whole. Disclaimer: The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other informa- tion shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.