SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) — Fourteen Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states will design multiple projects to mobilise resources from international sources, which will allow them to improve the resilience and adaptation of agriculture, food systems and rural communities to change climate.

The projects stem from a new fund created by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).

The agreement, signed in Rome last week by Director General of FAO, José Graziano da Silva,, and Luis Videgaray, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico creates the fund, which will have an initial budget of US$500,000, contributed in equal parts of US$250,000.

This capital will be used as a pre-investment resource that will mobilise millions of dollars for resilience and adaptation projects.

“Thanks to the support of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, 14 CARICOM countries will design 27 projects to mobilise resources against climate change,” explained José Graziano da Silva.

“We all know that the Caribbean is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. We saw it in the last hurricane season, when the islands of Dominica and Barbuda were practically destroyed,” said Videgaray during the signing.

The countries that will develop the projects are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Ten of the projects will be presented to the Green Climate Fund, twelve to the Global Environment Facility and five to various European Union mechanisms. They will focus on vulnerable rural communities facing climate risks.

The fund between Mexico and FAO will also support CARICOM countries develop their institutional and technical capacities for planning, decision-making and project management, to enable them to better cope with natural disasters and extreme weather events.

Mexican experts and specialists from FAO will work side by side with their Caribbean counterparts in the design and implementation of the projects.

“The fund is a combination of financial resources and human resources,” Videgaray explained.