An initial US$2 million in resilient recovery grants have been mobilized for Jamaica’s hurricane recovery effort by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This is to restore community life and livelihoods and to support the national vision for a resilient recovery. 

In a statement, the UNDP said the new grants have emerged on the heels of a recent surge mission to Jamaica by UNDP’s global and regional crisis response and recovery teams, working with UNDP’s multi-country office in Jamaica.

The teams identified national and local needs through consultations with government, civil society, private sector, multilateral development banks, united nations agencies, and local communities in critically affected areas.

This process benefited from the lead role of UNDP Global Head of Disaster Risk Reduction, Recovery and Resilience, Mr. Ronald Jackson

The UNDP’s offer is designed to help stabilize affected communities, restore livelihoods of vulnerable groups and support national authorities and key sectors in Jamaica’s ‘building forward better’ vision, integrating resilience at every step. 

At the national level, UNDP is offering support to Jamaica’s long term recovery planning and governance along with some key data to support it, post hurricane national impact assessments, focusing on a root cause analysis and human impacts.

UNDP resident representative in Jamaica Kishan Khoday said UNDP’s offer targeting community stabilization includes clean up and management of debris, as well as recycling opportunities through cash for work modalities, ensuring income for jobless residents and easier access to affected communities by national relief teams.

He said it also prioritizes support for the recovery of Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized enterprises (MSMEs) and community livelihoods.

The UNDP will provide grants and hands on technical support to MSMEs to restore their facilities, connect to markets and access sustainable finance solutions such as loan guarantees, low-interest credit and other instruments.

The UNDP will also support solar power, resilient re-roofing and other critical community infrastructure needs.

Additionally, mobile and community-based technical assistance centres will provide on-the-spot advice to affected communities, combined with resilience grants to help communities integrate resilient methods into their build back process, ensuring better odds to weather future storms.

This initial UNDP resilient recovery grant assistance for Jamaica builds on UNDPs immediate crisis response allocations, and generous contributions from the Caricom Development Fund and the European Union.

Grant assistance of an additional US$8 million is also being considered, through the realignment of resources from UNDP’s ongoing development programmes in Jamaica.

These funds will support nature-based and climate-resilient recovery in the tourism sector, capacity development for ecosystem restoration and integrated land management in the western regions of Jamaica and support civil society organizations for building long-term resilience of communities and ecosystems.