Dominica to implement EC$8 billion Disaster Resilience Strategy (DRS)

Dominica: During a Cabinet meeting on December 8, 2020, Minister of governance, public service reform, citizen empowerment, social justice, and ecclesiastical affairs, Irving McIntyre revealed the plan for Disaster Resilience Strategy (DRS) of over EC$8 billion (US 2.8 billion).

During a statement after Cabinet Meeting, Minister said that In February of 2019, the Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Dominica to discuss possible areas of support. During the visit, it was agreed that the IMF, in collaboration with other development partners, would assist the Government in preparing a Disaster Resilience Strategy (DRS). “The purpose of the Disaster Resilience Strategy is to provide a comprehensive plan that includes the policies, cost, and financing for natural-disaster resilience,” added Minister in his statement.

The DRS is premised on three primary pillars.

Pillar I: Structural Resilience.

Pillar II: Financial Resilience.

Pillar III: Post-Disaster Resilience.

Road Network: Revision of road standards, Planning road network- mapping and vulnerability assessment, Realignment of existing roads to minimize flooding and land slippage, Improvement of slope stabilization, Sufficient drainage along and through the road. Air Transport and Connectivity: Looking at an alternate option to existing airports towards larger aeroplanes used to deploy food and medicine supplies and relief structures for shelters. Seaport: Improvements in seaport capacity to provide additional and more resilient structures for uploading and storage. Flood prevention: River dredging and re-enforcement of river banks and hillsides to mitigate flooding risk. Energy: Investment in renewable energy through investments in large geothermal plants and mini-grids for isolated communities. Health: Continued significant upgrade of medical services with the construction of the new hospitals and health centres. Housing: Continued investments in resilient housing. Zoning and Land Use: Revision and application of the national land-use policy. Water and Sanitation: Implementation of DOWASCO’s strategic development plan for the water sector. Insurance: The plan is to implement a comprehensive insurance strategy with a layering framework for Small and medium disasters, Large disasters and Extreme Disaster. Government Self Insurance Fund: This proposal assumes the establishment of a Vulnerability and Resiliency Fund(VRF) with government savings which we have already started.

Strengthening of private insurance to include low-income households: This options propose insurance arrangements for low-income vulnerable households who were seriously challenged in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and for which Government had to provide support for housing rehabilitation.

Among all the above, Government has also decided post-disaster and social resilience which will sum up of four significant propositions including: Food Security, Effective Disaster Response and Recovery, National Action Plan for Risk Reduction and Social Data Capture and Improvement of Social Safety Nets.

The DRS conducted various scenarios of applicable funding modalities that involve multiple sources of state resources. It also assumes a significant role for the donor community. In conclusion, the model-based estimates indicated that the return on resilient investment would outweigh the cost in the long term.

Minister further said, “Today the Cabinet of Dominica approved of the Disaster Resilience Strategy as an Annex to the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan (CRRP), which was published in May 2020.”

The Government of Dominica has already started to implement a number of recommendations as the DRS strategy along with the NRDS and CRRP would guide efforts making the Commonwealth of Dominica, world’s first climate-resilient country in the world.

Fiscal Rules and Responsibility Framework

The cabinet on December 8 also made decision to the Development of a Fiscal Rules and Responsibility Framework which will establish parameters that would allow to build fiscal resilience—note that from October 2020 Dominica has been making contributions to Government Vulnerability Risk and Resilience Fund at the East Caribbean Central Bank; in the amount of EC$500,000.00 per month.

Public Procurement Bill

Cabinet approved of the publication of a new draft Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Bill. The Bill will be made available to the general public by December 16, 2020, for review and feedback.

Debt Portfolio Review

Debt Portfolio Review which will be laid in Parliament next Wednesday, December 16, 2020.