Project profile — Resilience and Enhanced Adaptability to Disasters in the Caribbean

• Dominica (12.00%)
• Belize (12.00%)
• Saint Lucia (12.00%)
• Suriname (12.00%)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines (12.00%)
• Jamaica (12.00%)
• Grenada (12.00%)
• Guyana (12.00%)

• West Indies, regional (4.00%)

• Other Multisector: Disaster Risk Reduction (43060) (31.38%)
• Disaster Prevention And Preparedness: Multi-hazard response preparedness (74020) (68.62%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Climate Change Adaptation (principal objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (principal objective)

This project aims to improve inclusive and gender-responsive, comprehensive disaster management in the Caribbean Region focusing on vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls. The World Food Programme, in partnership with regional and national agencies, works to build capacity and strengthen disaster response and social protection systems, ensuring that vulnerable households and populations are supported to prepare for and recover from shocks. Project activities include: (1) providing technical assistance to national governments in areas that will support the strengthening of social protection and disaster response systems, such as identification and registration, vulnerability analyses, mapping, information management and data analysis, digitalization, and predictions and assessments of the impact of shocks; (2) providing top-ups to increase national insurance coverage made available by CCRIF-SPC, to enable the equivalent portion of payments received following a disaster to be transferred directly through social protection systems to those most vulnerable and in need of assistance; (3) identifying and developing mechanisms for anticipatory action financing to enable the disbursement of funds to the most vulnerable to aid their preparedness in advance of a predictable event (e.g. hurricane); (4) supporting continued progress on establishing and operationalizing the Regional Logistics Hub and Centre of Excellence in coordination with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and other partners; and (5) operationalizing the Centre of Excellence training facility and delivering training for disaster response personnel and logisticians. This project will be implemented in Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname. The targeted beneficiaries will be populations living in vulnerable situations, particularly women and girls in the targeted countries. Additionally, national governments and regional, and national organizations will benefit from capacity building initiatives and technical assistance.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased effectiveness of inclusive, gender and shock-responsive social protection systems by national governments in the Caribbean; (2) increased resilience of households and populations in vulnerable situations, particularly women and girls, including women-headed households, to the impacts of disasters and climate change in the Caribbean; (3) improved management of common services and platforms, including logistics and telecommunications, for inclusive, gender-responsive disaster preparedness and response by national governments and regional institutions in the Caribbean.

Results achieved as of December 2024 include: (1) increased region’s shock-readiness index score from 3.05 to 3.25 (on a scale of 5), demonstrating better preparedness of Caribbean countries to support vulnerable people during crises; (2) delivered shock-responsive social protection training to 73 individuals, bringing the total number of trained professionals in the region to 499; (3) supported the governments of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines to temporarily expand their national social protection systems to assist 15,344 people (8,083 women) affected by Hurricane Beryl; (4) increased from 3 to 7 the number of countries that agree to direct a portion of the payouts from their national Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility Segregated Portfolio Company’s tropical cyclone and excess rainfall policies to affected individuals and households. This is done in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank and covers 131,627 new people and increased the total number of insured individual to 195,350 across 7 countries. This includes Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines); (5) launched the Saint Lucia anticipatory action mechanism for hurricanes. This helped to provide support to up to 2,000 pre-identified households in advance of a hurricane; and (6) completed construction of the Caribbean Regional Logistics Hub in Barbados in time for the 2024 Hurricane season. This helped to reduced response times and logistic costs when responding to the impacts of Hurricane Beryl across the region.

• Proactive disclosure