Port of Spain, October 4, 2019 – Stakeholders from the public and private sectors and civil society, including vulnerable local communities, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have been participating in a series of national consultations on December 11, 2018 and March 18-22 and September 11, 2019 to develop a Climate Change Policy, Strategy and Implementation Plan to mainstream climate resilience into the country’s development agenda.

The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) is providing technical assistance to the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, Sustainable Development and Information Technology to facilitate the series of national consultations and develop a new policy framework. The aim of these consultations was to gain stakeholder input in identifying and reviewing their priorities and relevant measures for adaptation and mitigation for key sectors to inform a National Climate Change Policy and a Climate Change Strategy and Implementation Plan.

Stakeholders from government, civil society and the private sector were brought together to draft a shared vision and goals and identify priority sectors for adaptation and mitigation for the Climate Change Policy at the first consultation workshop in Saint Vincent on December 11, 2018. Three consultation workshops were then held in Bequia and Union Island in the Grenadines and on the mainland, Saint Vincent from March 18-22.

Stakeholders reviewed and refined the shared vision and goals for the draft Climate Change Policy and the priority sectors and objectives for adaptation and mitigation, including for the agriculture, energy and transport, health, tourism and water sectors. Community consultations were also held in Layou, Owia, Sans Souci and Rose Bank across mainland Saint Vincent with local residents, women’s and youth groups, resource users such as farmers and fisherfolk and community enterprises, to identify their priorities for action for inclusion in the Climate Change Policy and to ensure the new policy framework reflects the needs of vulnerable communities that are often underrepresented in policy processes.

To operationalise the policy, stakeholders further provided inputs on specific adaptation and mitigation measures for the priority sectors to develop a Climate Change Strategy and Implementation Plan at a national consultation workshop on September 11. They also identified potential governance arrangements and financing for effective implementation to operationalise the Climate Change Policy and Strategy.

Ms. Nyasha Hamilton of the Ministry’s Sustainable Development Unit welcomed collaboration between her unit, other implementing agencies for key sectors and civil society and private sector to ensure a coordinated and cross-sectoral approach to streamline implementation of climate change measures and enable mainstreaming of climate resilience into development planning.

CANARI and the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines will continue to work with stakeholders over the next month to finalise the Climate Change Policy, Strategy and Implementation Plan. This process is being supported under the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Regional Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project funded by the World Bank and the

Climate Investment Fund’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience. For more details, see: https://canari.org/svgclimatepolicy/

About CANARI: The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) is a regional technical non-profit organisation which has been working in the islands of the Caribbean for 30 years. Our mission is to promote equitable participation and effective collaboration in managing natural resources critical to development. Our programmes focus on capacity building, policy planning and development, research, sharing and dissemination of lessons learned, and fostering regional partnerships. See here for more information on CANARI: http://www.canari.org/.