Press Release (Dominica News Online) – One of the Caribbean’s last remaining indigenous groups is taking steps to preserve their centuries old way of life, which is currently being threatened by climate change. Dominica’s Kalinago people, with support from the island’s government, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean are creating more resilient communities that can better withstand climate impacts and improve their quality of life. These efforts are part of the UNDP’s Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project which is funded by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, and seeks to ensure equal access to climate change adaptation solutions for women, children, persons living with disabilities and other vulnerable groups in the Caribbean.7
Speaking via video, on Monday, 7 February 2022, during the launch of a series of workshops to assess the current needs and vulnerabilities of the Kalinago people, and how these may increase due to the effects of climate change, Valerie Cliff, Resident Representative UNDP Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, noted that the two-week assessment and the resulting recommended actions are an essential prerequisite for inclusive growth. She stated, “The Commonwealth of Dominica has a historic opportunity to undertake transformative change and invest in development that creates a greener, healthier, and more inclusive future for the island’s most vulnerable groups, specifically the Kalinago People and Community. Achieving this requires an ambitious, coordinated, and innovative approach to climate action, one that understands development is only truly sustainable when gendered inequalities are acknowledged and addressed.”
The assessments, are funded through the Offer of Complementary Funding (OCF), an EnGenDER initiative that helps Caribbean nations access a portion of USD 76 million in climate financing from international organisations like the Green Climate Fund in order to increase national mitigation and adaptation measures. Both the EnGenDER Project and the OCF are funded by the Governments of Canada and the United Kingdom. To date, eight of the nine countries participating in the EnGenDER project have accessed the OCF’s USD $715,000 fund.
