HIGHLIGHTS
- Most of the population in Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) nations live in coastal zones vulnerable to rising sea levels and severe weather conditions.
- Abt leads USAID’s five-year Resilient Economies and Sectors Activity (RESET) in 11 ESC countries to promote financing for sustainable, localized climate solutions—including an equitable blue economy.
- Abt and USAID are working across the ESC to lower barriers to climate and disaster risk finance and boost investments in resilience.
The Challenge
As the climate crisis continues to cause extreme weather, small island states are the hardest hit. For instance, most of the population in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean nations (the ESC) lives in coastal zones vulnerable to rising sea levels and severe weather. Already managing increasingly unsustainable debt burdens, ESC and other small island governments lack the fiscal capacity to manage climate threats and recover from increasingly large disasters. Not only are the physical impacts to infrastructure more dramatic, but these countries’ economies are also disproportionately damaged as disasters hinder key economic sectors such as tourism, fisheries, agriculture, and international trade.
The Approach
To help address these challenges and support economic growth, Abt leads USAID’s five-year nearly $20 million Resilient Economies and Sectors Activity (RESET) to promote climate finance for sustainable, localized climate solutions in 11 ESC countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
RESET’s goals include reducing constraints to climate and disaster finance and increasing investments in climate and disaster resilience across economic sectors, through encouraging the private sector to invest in blue and green economies, providing grants that support the uptake of climate smart technologies and approaches by small businesses, and collaborating with countries to create their mitigation and adaptation policies and solutions. Abt’s partners—the Caricom Private Sector Organization and Willis North America Inc.—provide critical expertise and networks to reach these goals. The project includes women, youth, people with disabilities, and Indigenous groups in the planning, design, and delivery of activities.
The Results
RESET will identify and address capacity requirements to use financing instruments for resilience and provide grants for projects that showcase investment in technology for resilience. Additionally, RESET will enhance the capacity of the 11 countries to increase the number of blended finance projects or deals supporting climate adaptation. It aims to mobilize US$200m for climate change adaptation and help 10,000 people apply climate or disaster smart practices in their businesses and operations. Furthermore, the Activity will train and mentor early career professionals in climate finance, as well as women, youth, and indigenous people, to increase their participation in economic opportunities that build climate resilience.