Under the theme: The Road to Dynamic Dominica – Fostering Economic Resilience, The Rt. Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica delivered a thoughtful 2020-2021 budget speech on July 28, 2020, which focused heavily on resilience as he reiterated his Government’s position of building the first climate resilient nation in the world.
Prime Minister Skerrit further stated that Dominica has already embarked on a journey of transformation. “Our commitment to build back better, and to mould Dominica into a resilient nation, has manifested in the development of a National Resilience Development Strategy (NRDS), and Climate Resilience Recovery Plan (CRRP) to guide us in achieving this goal. It will result in us having resilient systems and infrastructure, that will propel our economic growth and development.”
He also revealed that effective October 2020 and every month thereafter, $500,000 will be placed in a Vulnerability, Risk and Resilience Fund at the ECCB to cover emergency expenditure following disasters. Funds will be extracted from CBI revenue, and other sources, including contributions from development partners.
The CRRP, published in May 2020 includes a Disaster Resilience Strategy (DRS) in the annex, and was recently developed with technical assistance from the IMF.
The DRS is built on three pillars:
– Pillar I: Structural Resilience
– Pillar II: Financial Resilience
– Pillar III: Post-Disaster Resilience
Against the background of making Dominica’s health facilities more resilient under the PAHO Smart Facility Initiative funded by the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Skerrit explained that work is ongoing to improve the resilience of the health centers at La Plaine, Grandbay, Pointe Michel and Portsmouth.
“When we say in our CRRP that resilient communities must be able to function independently for at least 15 days after a disaster, these are some of the things that we contemplate. So even if communities are temporarily cut off after a disaster, each community will continue to have access to a decent level of health care, at a functioning facility,” he reiterated.
The CRRP sets forth clear targets, defines initiatives that will take Dominica from the beginning of 2020 to 2030, and outlines what will be required to achieve the objectives in terms of financial resources, as well as, strategic and operational partnerships.
It was developed by CREAD in partnership with the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and consultant Dr. James Fletcher.
The CRRP fully operationalizes the National Resilience Development Strategy (NRDS) which was crafted and endorsed In June 2018
