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The Caribbean Organizations for a Resilient Environment (CORE) Project aims to increase resilience to climate change of vulnerable groups in 8 beneficiary countries across the Caribbean: Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname. More specifically, project beneficiaries include Caribbean organizations: Conservation Trust Funds, Women’s Rights Organizations, Environmental Organizations and Youth Organizations.
In partnership with the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, Global Affairs Canada will contribute a total of CAD 8 million to the CORE project. CAD 4 million of this will be used for small to medium grants to local environmental and women-rights organizations to implement inclusive and gender responsive nature-based solutions (NBS), including ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA). The contribution from Global Affairs Canada will be matched by CBF from the existing CBF Endowment Fund.
Climate change impacts women and men differently and with climate change, the gender inequalities are exacerbated, especially in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This means that climate change can have a more significant impact on women, affecting their ability to generate income, reducing their time availability for caring for their households. In the Caribbean, gender inequality continues to be of concern and closing gender gaps can lead to increased economic growth, as well as increased climate resilience.
Caribbean countries are up to seven times more likely to experience a natural disaster than other states. It has been estimated that the Caribbean experiences regular annual losses from disasters at around US$3 billion, with the tourism and agriculture industries usually taking the hardest hits. Studies confirm that natural disasters, such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes can trigger increased violence against women and girls.
Many women lack access to legal and social protection mechanisms, especially Indigenous women and other vulnerable groups living in rural areas. In these spaces, the promotion of positive masculinities and the safe engagement of most vulnerable women and men in all their diversity is needed to build climate resilience.
Integrating a gender perspective in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Resilience frameworks can be a challenge for Caribbean countries because of the need for sustained technical assistance and increased institutional capacity for gender mainstreaming. The impact of extreme weather events can also be an obstacle as major damage to infrastructure brings countries to a standstill, slows economic growth and can threaten fragile gender mainstreaming gains.
This highlights the necessity for gender-responsive expeditious recovery with the effective participation of women and girls from diverse backgrounds. This Project aims to bridge some of these gaps, and provide the countries with necessary, gender disaggregated data to enable gender-responsive decision-making towards sustainable development for all.
The CORE Project will work to support the mainstreaming of inclusive and gender responsive approaches in the Caribbean Sustainable Finance Architecture (CSFA) to expand their reach and results at the national, local and community level and increase the resilience of the Caribbean communities.
The project timeframe is 4 years, from April 2023 – December 2027.
The Conservation Finance Program focuses on the provision of funding towards the protection and management of biodiversity and natural resources and is mainly supported through the Endowment Fund. The proceeds of this Fund are invested in country-based sub-accounts and are channeled through partner National Conservation Trust Funds (NCTFs), who in turn lead grant-making programs at the national level.
The Caribbean Organizations for a Resilient Environment (CORE) Project aims to increase resilience to climate change of vulnerable groups in 8 beneficiary countries across the Caribbean: Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.
