Earth Today | US$2 million and counting

AN INITIAL US$2 million in grants has been mobilised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Jamaica’s hurricane recovery effort.

The new grants have emerged on the heels of a recent surge mission to Jamaica by UNDP’s global and regional crisis response and recovery teams, working with UNDP’s Multi-Country Office in Jamaica to identify national and local needs through consultations with government, civil society, private sector, multilateral development banks, United Nations agencies, and local communities in critically affected areas. This process benefited from the lead role of Ronald Jackson, UNDP global head of disaster risk reduction, recovery and resilience.

“UNDP’s offer is designed to help stabilise affected communities, restore livelihoods of vulnerable groups and support national authorities and key sectors in Jamaica’s ‘Building Forward Better’ 0, integrating resilience at every step,” noted a November 24 release from the UNDP.

At the national level, the UNDP is offering support to Jamaica’s long-term recovery planning and governance, along with some key data to support it – post hurricane national impact assessments, focusing on a root cause analysis and human impacts.

“Crises can be opportunities to build forward better,” said Kishan Khoday, UNDP resident representative in Jamaica, in the release.

“To this end, we offer to enhance institutional capacities and systems for recovery, and to integrate climate-resilient, risk-informed and nature-based solutions into recovery planning. Future plans can also embrace the role of geospatial and digital tools and aim to make development assets futureproof in an era of more frequent and severe climate disasters,” he added.

Khoday explained that the UNDP’s offer targeting community stabilisation includes clean-up and management of debris – estimated at 4.8 million metric tonnes across impacted areas – as well as recycling opportunities through cash-for-work modalities, ensuring income for jobless residents and easier access to affected communities by national relief teams.

It also prioritises support for the recovery of micro, small, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) and community livelihoods. UNDP will provide grants and hands-on technical support to MSMEs to restore their facilities, connect to markets and access sustainable finance solutions such as loan guarantees, low-interest credit and other instruments.

UNDP will also support solar power, resilient re-roofing and other critical community infrastructure needs. Additionally, based on previous experience in the aftermath of Category 5 hurricanes in 2017 in Dominica and 2021 in The Bahamas, mobile and community-based Technical Assistance Centres will provide on-the-spot advice to affected communities, combined with resilience grants to help communities integrate resilient methods into their build-back process, ensuring better odds to weather future storms.

“These storms are no longer ‘once in a lifetime’. They are becoming the new baseline. Even countries that plan well are being tested by hurricanes more powerful, unpredictable and punishing than what our systems are perhaps built for,” said Jackson.

This initial UNDP Resilient Recovery grant assistance of US$2 million for Jamaica builds on UNDP’s immediate crisis response allocations, and generous contributions from the CARICOM Development Fund and the European Union.Grant assistance of an additional US$8 million is also being considered, through the realignment of resources from UNDP’s ongoing development programmes in Jamaica.