UNDP approves US$100,000 to assist with Salt Whistle Bay Project

The UNDP’s programme, “Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean” (EnGenDER) has approved complementary funding of US$100,000 to St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to assist with the mitigation of coastal erosion at Salt Whistle Bay.

The funds have been awarded so that SVG can leverage sustainable climate finance from the Green Climate Fund to conduct a detailed environmental and social assessment that will determine the parameters, causes and consequent socio-economic impacts of coastal erosion at Salt Whistle Bay, a world famous beach on Mayreau.

The complementary funding will assist in accelerating the closure of the existing climate financing gaps which would contribute to mitigating the negative consequences that the coastal erosion at Salt Whistle Bay will have, particularly on the sustainable livelihoods of women as well the ecology, climate resilience and socio-economic development of the country, a release from the UNDP said.

The UNDP’s programme, “Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean” (EnGenDER) has been working with implementing partners, stakeholders and donors over the last year to strengthen disaster risk management systems for 9 Caribbean countries and build resilience to the effects of climate change. This work is happening at a variety of levels, from improving central government’s ability to build strategies for inclusive approaches to policy making for building resilience; to strengthening regional systems for planning and recovery from natural disasters; to community level interventions to ensure the vulnerable have what they need, so that adaptation and mitigation actions in key livelihood sectors, such as agriculture, consider vulnerable persons.

Based on climate change projections, the people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines considered particularly vulnerable are those who live in a near poverty situation, households managed by single adults, elderly people, people with disabilities, and people who do not own land. To face the current and predicted climate risks, opportunities to catalyse access to financial resources will significantly contribute to achieving the nations’ single unified goal of creating a resilient nation.