The United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID) will over the next five years be working with governments in the Caribbean to increase community resilience to both climate-related threats and social issues such as gender-based violence and trafficking in persons.
The agency’s Eastern and Southern Caribbean (USAID/ESC) office on Mon-day announced that its 2020-2025 Regional Development Cooperation Strategy (RDCS) programme will be executed in partnership with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and seek to partner with state agencies, the private sector and civil society.
While USAID partners with individuals, communities, and governing institutions in 11 participating states so that they can address challenges and progress, CARICOM will anchor the agency’s efforts across the RDCS regional priorities of safety, prosperity and resilience.
USAID has explained that by working with other countries on development issues, the United States strengthens its own national security and deepens important international relationships.
According to the agency the goal of the new strategy is to promote a safe, prosperous, resilient Caribbean region that supports its vulnerable populations, withstands external shocks, and promotes accountable institutions, economic development, and private sector-led growth.
USAID has already committed an initial amount of US$10.45 million for activities under this strategy which will improve Government Accountability and Transparency as well as strengthen community resilience.
According to USAID/ESC Regional Representative, Clinton D. White, the American people, through USAID, are partnering with the people of the Caribbean to move education, health, economic development, gender equality, climate change resilience, and prosperity forward, so they are able to have opportunities to better their lives and to promote stronger and safer communities.
The agency explains that within the region crime and violence remain a serious concern with six USAID/ESC countries including Guyana appearing on the world’s top 25 list for homicide rates. This reality harms productive investment and limits livelihood opportunities across the
Region, while outdated technical systems limit efficiency, insufficient government staff levels leave priorities unaddressed, and weak data collection and analysis detracts from evidence-based decision making.
“Weak coordination among governments, the private sector, and civil society also limits progress toward financing sustainable development across the region,” it explained.
Citizen oversight
Consequently efforts will be made to strengthen national institutions and systems, support citizen interests, and improve citizen oversight.
“Work in this area will equip governments of the region with enhanced national financial management systems to contribute to more effective administration and an enabling environment more conducive to attracting more investments from the western hemisphere,” USAID/ESC maintained, while adding that efforts made to reduce systemic barriers to economic growth contribute to regional growth while increased domestic resources mobilization and accountability will enable ESC countries to better direct their resources toward citizen needs and promote equitable social and economic development.
The agency in its summary of the multi-year strategy acknowledged that resilience to shocks is a concern in the region which remains among the most vulnerable to both natural and human-made hazards, with many of its countries experiencing severe impacts from hurricanes and strong tropical storms in recent years.
“These challenges not only reduce safety and damage prosperity, but they also hinder resilience and the region’s ability to sustain growth. Further, most of the ESC countries are classified as small island developing states (SIDS), which often have limited human capacity and economic growth bases, a lack of natural resources due to small land areas, and a risk of extreme national level economic losses due to periodic natural disasters. These small and homogenous economies have a minimal buffer to recover,” they explain.
Efforts to address this shortcoming will build on lessons learned over the past five years.
“USAID seeks to strengthen citizen security and community resilience through targeted
programming. Efforts include reducing gender-based violence and other forms of crime and violence at the community level as well as engaging private sector entities to ensure youth are mentored and equipped with skills that can be more readily absorbed into meaningful employment,” it explained.
Interventions are also expected to help communities reduce vulnerabilities by engaging citizens in governance, community development, and building disaster management capacity.
The strategy is built on a framework of four priority sectors—financing sustainable development, citizen security, education and resilience.
The cross-cutting themes of gender, innovation, private sector engagement, civil society organization inclusion, countering trafficking in persons, and impact of pandemics are integrated into the priority sectors.
Key approaches that outline how the Mission will implement both programmatic priorities and cross-cutting pillars will include: redefining the relationship with partner governments by making them stakeholders in programmes; improving data to drive evidence-based solutions; and leveraging digital solutions to bring new efficiencies and productivity to the region.
