India supporting Climate Change Resilience in the Caribbean

St Vincent and the Grenadines and other small Island developing states are being encouraged to access technical and financial support in building climate resilient infrastructure through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).

CDRI is a global organization created by India in 2019, which seeks to empower countries in building resilience through Technical Support and Capacity-building, Research and Knowledge Management and Advocacy and Partnerships.

In an interview with the Agency for Public Information (API), in New Delhi, India, Director General of CDRI, Amit Prothi said countries like St Vincent and the Grenadines can benefit immensely from being part of the coalition.

“We are already supporting 14 small island developing states with technical assistance, this is grant funding…we are actually going to be launching the next call for proposals in May….and this is going to be a multi-year initiative ….so they can address these challenges that are getting bigger and bigger for small island developing states,” Prothi said.

The coalition is supporting a number of projects in the region, including in the Dominican Republic where they are developing multi-hazard early warning systems, and earthquake prone Haiti, where they are looking at strengthening infrastructure to be more resilient in the face of disaster threats. So far 31 countries have signed onto the organisation, 13 of which are small island developing states (API).