Commonwealth joins global pact to help hurricane devastated countries
More than 500 representatives from governments, non-profits and global conglomerates joined forces to accelerate resilience building in Caribbean countries still recovering from hurricane devastation.
International organisations and businesses, including Expedia, IBM, InterEnergy, First Bank and Pfizer met in San Juan Puerto Rico at a mega networking session on post-disaster recovery, hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative.
Representing the Commonwealth, Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said the event was a prime opportunity to shift the global spotlight onto countries that are still suffering the aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma that devastated Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and others in 2017.
Day 2 of the @ClintonFdn Post-Disaster Recovery Meeting in Puerto Rico. IDB General Manager for Caribbean Countries @thereselmm moderates a discussion on the Green Economy. How can the Caribbean become a center of innovation for clean energy and new technology? #IdeasIntoAction pic.twitter.com/zxz7rNf6EC
— IDB Caribbean/Caribe (@IDB_Caribbean) January 30, 2019
“A year and half ago Hurricanes Maria and Irma swept through the Caribbean, erasing decades of infrastructural development, jobs, homes and lives. Indeed, in the recent past we have seen widespread devastation across the Commonwealth with mudslides and desertification in Africa, floods in Asia, cyclones in the Pacific and storms in Europe.
“It is a heart-wrenching story, but it is also a story of the power of goodwill and concerted international action, and the resilience of the people affected. Because of global action, Dominica, the country most affected by Hurricane Maria, is now set to achieve a nine per cent growth in its economy in 2019 after losing 226 per cent of its GDP as a result of the hurricane.”
The Secretary-General continued, “But there is a lot more work to do politically, socially and economically. For example, we still have to address the issue of absorptive capacity, which is the ability to effectively access and use donated development assistance – particularly as a preliminary Commonwealth study shows that vulnerable countries failed to receive and use US$4.5 billion worth of development assistance donated between 2010 and 2016.
Read more at: The Commonwealth Secretariat