The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $100 million loan to support sustainable development in Barbados. The program is the second in a series of three policy-based loans.
The program will support maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment and deepen the reforms initiated under the first operation, an $80 million loan approved in March, 2020. It provides budget support tied to the strengthening and consolidation of public policies focused on improving sustainability in three thematic areas.
The first area of policy reform is the regulatory framework for spatial planning, managing the impacts of development activity, and water resource management. Among other initiatives this covers development of regulations and plans for the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act of 2020, and progress in regulating Rainwater Harvesting, Water Reuse, and Ground Water Zoning and Protection.
It will also foster further development of the regulatory framework for natural asset management, including the approval of the updated Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan, the Guidelines and Protocols for the Operation of Solid Waste Management Facilities, and the approval of an Integrated Blue Economy Policy Framework and Strategic Action Plan.
In addition, the program will help governance reforms to enhance disaster management and resilience, through a financial protection mechanism for natural hazard-induced disaster shocks, and the submission of Barbados’ update to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, among other activities.
The entire population of Barbados of approximately 285,000 people will benefit from the series of Loans. Some regulatory reforms and programming in Coastal Zone Management, disaster management and resilience will particularly help low and middle-income households with higher vulnerability to climate effects.
This operation is aligned with Vision 2025 – Reinvesting in the Americas: A Decade of Opportunities, created by the IDB to achieve sustainable recovery and inclusive growth in Latin America and the Caribbean with one of its medium-term strategic goals, which is to strengthen good governance and institutions, and climate change as one of its key areas of action.
The $100 million IDB loan is for a 20-year term and a 5.5-year period of grace.
