Dominican gov't holds consultation on CREAD bill

The Government of Dominica on Wednesday convened a consultation on the Climate Resilience Executing Agency of Dominica (CREAD) Bill 2018 at the Goodwill Parish Hall.

The CREAD Bill 2018 will allow for the establishment of the Agency as Government moves ahead with its objective to make Dominica the World’s First Climate Resilient Country.

According to the Government release, stake holder representatives from the public and private sector and civil society were expected to attend the consultation and have the opportunity to review and discuss the draft legislation before it is taken to parliament.

The objectives of the proposed bill are to promote the swift and cost-effective recovery of Dominica from climate-related disasters; to ensure that any physical and other infrastructure damaged or destroyed during a climate related disaster is reconstructed or restored to a state that is better than its state before the occurrence of that disaster; to ensure that Dominica will be more resilient to natural hazards and better able to respond to climate-related disasters; and to assist the public and private sectors and civil society to be better equipped to manage and recover from climate-related disasters.

The Climate Resilience Execution Agency of Dominica (CREAD) was formed to assist in rebuilding Dominica following the passage of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. The Government will soon formalize the Agency through the enactment of the CREAD Bill, 2018 in order to rebuild the island as the first climate resilient nation in the world in accordance with a Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan developed by the Commonwealth of Dominica and its partners.

Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, explained the mission of CREAD at a CARICOM-UN High-level Pledging Conference in New York in November last year.

“In developing CREAD, we sought advice from partners from around the globe and studied various examples. Briefings were held for instance with the CEO of the Indonesian BRR. We are speaking to a couple multilateral agencies on establishing a multi-donor trust fund. We will have a German-style supervisory board with a majority of donors to oversee assurance. The internal audit function, and any other assurance functions, will report directly to this supervisory board,” he noted.

He said the agency will be audited externally, will cost $3.5-million a year to operate and a parliamentary committee will provide oversight.

CREAD was officially launched on Friday march 9, 2018.

The launch was strongly condemned by the United Workers Party who described it as an ” imposition of the Climate Resilient Executing Agency of Dominica (CREAD) in the governance structure of the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica without first seeking Parliamentary approval.”