Given the myriad developmental-related holes that needs to be ‘filled’ across the Caribbean, there usually is very little, if any, respite for the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in terms of its overarching agenda at the top of which is the material transformation of a clutch of (mostly) island states saddled with challenges that have to do mostly with their chronic developmental deficiencies.
At the now ongoing 2023 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, (COP 28), currently underway in Dubai, the Bank will be expected to intensify its lobbying for the allocation of increased resources to the region, particularly for the financing of actions that will mitigate the increasing climate-related threats confronting the mostly tiny island states that comprise the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The CDB will be challenged to use the COP 28 forum, not just to highlight the challenges the climate crisis is posing for the Caribbean, but also to mount a lobbying effort that will ensure that its lobby secures favourable attention among the host of appeals for support by delegations from other parts of the world.