St Vincent and the Grenadines are among 8 countries that will benefit from US 40 Million dollars in an effort to reduce poverty.
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) announced the funding for poverty reduction in eight countries in the Caribbean Region, through the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF).
The resources will support improved access to quality education; water and sanitation; basic community access and drainage; livelihoods enhancement and human resource development services in low-income and vulnerable communities under the ninth phase of BNTF (BNTF 9).
Countries that will benefit are Belize; the Commonwealth of Dominica; Grenada; the Cooperative Republic of Guyana; Jamaica; Saint Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and Suriname.
Daniel Best, Director of Projects at CDB said the participating countries share many common characteristics and face a number of challenges inherent to small, open economies.
BNTF 9 will respond to the development needs of these countries, which face challenges associated with limited diversity in production and extreme vulnerability to natural hazards, which is now exacerbated by climate change and other external shocks.
Initiatives under BNTF 9 will be implemented during the period March 2017 to December 2020. Governments of the eight participating countries will provide total counterpart funding of USD6.04 million.
