WASHINGTON, May 25, 2022 —The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the financing of US$25 million for Grenada’s First Recovery and Resilience Programmatic Development Policy Credit. Before the pandemic, Grenada’s steadfast reform path to building economic resilience had attained solid growth, debt sustainability and poverty reduction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive socio-economic impacts, which are expected to exacerbate the pre-existing vulnerabilities of Grenada as a small island developing state.

The financing will help support the country’s recovery by promoting a greener and more climate-resilient economy, improving sustainability, and greater accountability of fiscal management.

“While COVID-19 has slowed growth, the Government of Grenada continues to work to enhance climate resilience, diversify the economy and encourage inclusive growth.” said Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank Country Director for Caribbean countries. “The country is poised for sustainable recovery by including a sound disaster risk management framework, increased digitalization and wider use of renewable energy in this operation.”

The project will assist in establishing a comprehensive disaster risk management legislation to utilize resources efficiently and effectively, promote wider use of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. Additionally, increased use of technology is expected with the passage of legislation and other plans to increase data safeguards.

In addition, it will support the government in strengthening fiscal accountability and mitigating risks to fiscal sustainability, including support for climate change and gender considerations in the budgeting process. The project will also assist with the implementation of a permanent unemployment insurance program to enhance the labor market’s resilience. Another objective is to build the capacity of Grenada’s statistical system to enable more informed and timely policymaking.

Grenada also received World Bank funding for US$15 million this month to make the country’s transport infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. The Grenada Resilience Improvement Project will finance interventions to protect principal transport corridors against coastal erosion fueled by sea level rise and flooding at the crossing of the country’s largest river.