The Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) and the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA) are working together to boost Caribbean public sector professionals’ understanding of climate resilience, capacity-building, and sustainable development, and how these are applied within the region.

Both organisations are actively building on a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was put in place in September 2022.

CARICAD is the region’s focal point for transforming and modernizing public sectors of member states to better formulate and implement public policy towards the achievement of sound governance.

“CARICAD recognises the important leadership role of the public sector in creating a climate resilient Caribbean. This collaboration with CCSA affords us an opportunity to build public sector capacity to create the enabling environment for climate resilience, and to share associated best practices across our stakeholders,” said Devon Rowe, executive director of CARICAD.

CARICAD’s focus over the years has been on shaping and enhancing the development and sustainability of strong governance, structures and management arrangements in the region’s public sectors through the provision of technical assistance and capacity building, particularly in the area of leadership development.

The CCSA actively seeks out public and private sector climate-smart projects in the region through its investor forums, as an official nominator of the global environment Earthshot Prize and ongoing interactions with governments, nonprofits and entrepreneurs within and outside of the region. It then works to match those projects with suitable philanthropists or investors within its network.

Director of Public Sector Projects of the CCSA, Kiesha Farnum notes that the organisations connection with government stakeholders will play a critical role in accelerating projects to help the region mitigiate and adapt to climate change.

“This will be instrumental as we speed towards CCSA’s goals for 90 per cent renewable energy for all by 2035, 1.5 percent green jobs and the protection of 30 percent of waters in the region by 2030. Building the capacity of public sector professionals to meet the challenges and maximize the opportunities of climate change is at the top of the agenda for both our organizations,” said Farnum.