The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved two emergency support operations totaling US$65 million for restoring agriculture livelihoods, strengthening resilience, and rebuilding houses destroyed by Hurricane Maria in Dominica.
According to the Press Release from the World Bank this represents the World Bank’s highest ever financing for Dominica and is part of a larger US$115 million package of support. that includes financing of US$65 million in concessional terms and US$50 million in grant financing from the International Development Association’s (IDA) Crisis Response Window*.
The Emergency Agricultural Livelihoods and Climate Resilience project (US$25 million) will help farmers and fisherfolks to restore their agriculture and fishing production and systems, and adopt climate smart practices. The Housing Recovery project (US$40 million) will focus on rebuilding houses and improving the application of resilient building practices. The total $65 million project financing for these two projects includes the US$ 50 million of grant financing.
About 1,700 families will receive subsidies from the housing project and 4,900 farmers and fisherfolks will receive support from the agriculture project.
In the immediate aftermath, the World Bank mobilized a disaster risk management team to help the Governments of the most affected islands, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, to conduct rapid damage and needs assessments, in collaboration with the United Nations, the European Union, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and the Caribbean Development Bank. The assessments were delivered in time for the CARICOM donor conference coordinated by the UN. At the same time, US$7 million contingent emergency response component of an existing emergency project was immediately activated in Dominica.
