(MENAFN-Caribbean News Global)

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – With an intense Atlantic hurricane season predicted, any vulnerable developing state that takes a hit this year will need to finance recovery while dealing with the budget and tariff challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict between the Russia and Ukraine.

In this context, a panel of economists and sustainable development experts will advocate for more affordable financing for vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS), during a seminar organized on the occasion of the 52nd annual meeting of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Scheduled for Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 3:00 PM AST, the event will focus on CDB’s Recovery Duration Adjuster (RDA), a framework the bank offers as a global standard for measuring vulnerability and resilience. Beyond measurement, RDA is also capable of assessing a country’s social and economic conditions to determine the level and terms of financing needed for rescue and recovery from shocks, and then repositioning for future growth and development.

“The pandemic has provided an opportunity to rethink sustainable development and special attention must be paid to the unique vulnerabilities of small states,” explained CBD Chair Dr. Hyginus “Gene” Leon. “Multilateral organizations have been challenged to think creatively about solutions to the vulnerabilities of small states that led to the formulation of the UN Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI); however, CBD has upgraded the MVI with cooldown adjuster.

Titled Measuring the Vulnerability and Resilience of Small States: The Recovery Duration Adjuster, the seminar will feature an overview of the GDR from CBD economist Jason Cotton.

This will be followed by a panel discussion involving Dr Keith Nurse, Member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Principal of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Simon Stiell, Grenadian Minister for Climate Resilience, Environment, of Forestry, Fisheries, and Disaster Management, Professor Eric Strobl, from the Department of Economics and the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland, and Ambassador Aubrey Webson, Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, CBD Economics Director Ian Durant will moderate.

The seminar will explain the RDA methodology and demonstrate how it takes into account factors such as structural issues that impede growth and development in developing countries; the magnitude and impact of shocks, such as natural hazards, geopolitical events or macroeconomic disturbances; a country’s internal resilience capacity and access to finance, to determine the duration of the recovery (which is often much longer in small states) and suggest how concessional finance should be determined after the event.

The hybrid event is part of the activities of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the CBD Board of Governors. It will be held at the Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort and will be streamed live on CDB’s social media platforms. CBD Annual Meeting activities began on June 1, 2022, with a webinar series scheduled to run through June 9, 2022. The final week of activities will be held in the Turks and Caicos Islands from June 13-16, 2022.

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