Caricom calls for adequately- resourced Loss and Damage Fund

Caricom, as a member of the grouping of small island developing states (SIDS) that are especially vulnerable to climate change, has been at the forefront of advocacy for the Loss and Damage Fund to be adequately resourced.

Programme Manager, Sustainable Development, at the Caricom Secretariat, Amrikha Singh, has reiterated calls for the international community to allocate more resources to the fund. She also delved into some of the progress Caricom has made in organizing the Fund’s structure.
“With respect to the Loss and Damage Fund, I mean, as a region and as SIDs in general, we advocate and we call upon the international community to ensure that the fund is adequately resourced. There has been some progress, in that the new executive director has been identified, as well as the host country for the fund,” she explained.
The Fund was put into operation in 2024, and is accountable to, and functions under, the guidance of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA).
To date, the total pledged financial support for the Fund exceeds $730M. However, developing countries need more than $400B each year to address loss and damage.

The Loss and Damage Fund, under its first director, Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, is scheduled to meet in early April in Barbados. Singh stressed the importance of this meeting, noting that it will foster fruitful conversations between key stakeholders, further ensuring that the region is well aligned to achieve its targets.
“We also expect him to be in the region in the first quarter of this year, when the Loss and Damage Fund will have their board meeting in the region. So, it will also provide an opportunity for us to engage more fully in how we wish to see the effect, well, to provide our impotence and effectiveness of this fund.”
Diong brings more than three decades of global experience in climate change, finance, and development. He will provide strategic leadership and oversight of the Fund’s Secretariat, and assist the Board in delivering on the Fund’s mandate to provide financial support to vulnerable countries hardest hit by climate impacts.
Diong has professional leadership and management experience in Africa, USA, Europe and Asia. In September 2020, he was appointed as UN-Assistant Secretary General and Director General of the African Union specialized agency, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, where he is responsible for defining and executing the strategic vision of the institution.
He graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in New York City with a Master of International Affairs (MIA) specialized in environmental policy management and international finance.

Guyana’s advocacy for the fund
An agreement to establish a Loss and Damage Fund was, for many, the highlight of the United Nations Climate Conference COP27, and the culmination of decades of pressure from climate vulnerable developing countries like Guyana.
Six months after the agreement was reached by world leaders in Egypt in November 2022, Prime Minister Mark Phillips had called for the speedy establishment of the financing arrangement.

Phillips was at the time addressing a high-level meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, intended to review the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).
While the historic decision was welcomed, this is but the first step, and success will depend on how quickly this fund gets off the ground. Representatives from 24 countries were tasked with working together to decide what form the fund should take, which countries should contribute, and where and how the money should be distributed.
Beyond that, the Prime Minister pointed out that the classification of many SIDS as ‘middle-income’ has impeded access to concessional financing, which is critical for overall development, including building resilience.
Phillips said countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), many SIDS, have made significant progress in disaster risk reduction in recent years, with many countries implementing policies and programmes to reduce vulnerability and build resilience.
However, he stated, more needs to be done to address the underlying risk drivers that contribute to disasters in our region. This includes promoting sustainable development and addressing the impacts of climate change.