Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 2

12 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 2 The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw our response underpinned by flexibility and dexterity • The installation and upgrade of water supply lines for the Dennery North area in Saint Lucia, providing safe water to approximately 2000 households and; • The completion of the US$40 million Grantley Adams International Airport Pavement Rehabilitation and Expansion Project in Barbados. Looking ahead to 2022, Best signalled a major focus on climate investment for member countries, stating that: “CDB expects to mobilise up to US$150 million in concessional climate finance through those programmes and projects financed from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). We are working with BMCs to develop additional pipeline projects for GCF co-financing, to scale up and improve the sustainability of future climate finance flows to the Caribbean. Implementation of the EUR€14 million EU-funded Caribbean Action for Resilience Enhancement (CARE) Programme will commence implementation in the first quarter of 2022 and this will provide grant financing to support climate resilience in our BMCs.” Memorial Secondary School in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, part of a project for which CDB provided funding of US$12.3 million, which will make the full suite of programmes available to 500 students; • Upgrading of 30 Science and TVET workshops in St. Kitts and Nevis and the provision of equipment for six of the Federation’s eight public secondary schools. With the upgrades schools have been able to offer more CVQ programmes and cater to a wider range of older students and drop-out rates have declined from 37% for boys and 23% for girls at the start of the project to 6% and 4% respectively;