The Tribune

AS United States Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in The Bahamas today, a wave of funding has been announced for the region, with more than $100m in new assistance.

There will be $98m in new funding from the United States Agency for International Development “to address climate, energy, food security and humanitarian assistance in the Caribbean”.

Vice President Harris is co-hosting the US-Caribbean Leaders Meeting with Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, who is currently chair of CARICOM. It follows her June 22 meeting with leaders from the region at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.

In addition, the Vice President is to announce measures to address security and firearms trafficking, the need for an enhanced diplomatic presence in the eastern Caribbean, the crisis in Haiti, and the US-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030 (PACC 2030).

Gun trafficking has been a major concern for The Bahamas, with calls for greater steps to reduce the flow of guns from the US, where the majority of guns in The Bahamas originate from. The US will announce a Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions at the Department of Justice, who will be an experience prosecutor, to implement new federal provisions on firearms trafficking and straw purchases.

Continued support for forensic laboratories in The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic will be a priority, along with the setting up of a regional forensics centre of excellence in St Lucia.

USAID will provide $20 in funding to companies with financial and technical assistance and business development services through the Caribbean Climate Investment Programme.

There is also a pledge to develop storm surge risk maps to improve understanding of storm surge flooding vulnerability from storms, “providing critical information to help save lives and minimise impacts to property in The Bahamas”.

USAID is also providing nearly $15m to support disaster risk reduction, emergency response capacity strengthening and resilience building across the Caribbean, bringing USAID support over disaster risk and resilience building to more than $80m over the past five years.

There will also be support for response to the impacts of climate change, with $1.5m to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre to increase the flow of international climate funding.

A further $1m will be provided to partner with the Caribbean Islands Higher Education Resilience Consortium and Northeastern University to help mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

There will also be the establishment of the Blue-Green Investment Corporation in partnership with the Barbados government, the Green Climate Fund and private investors. This “green bank” will have initial capitalisation of $30m by non-US government partners, it is reported, with a goal of unlocking up to $210m over three years to finance projects such as climate resilient housing, renewable energy, clean transportation and water conservation. This will initially be in Barbados before expanding later.

When it comes to the situation in Haiti, $54m will be provided by USAID in response to the crisis there – as the nation faces gang violence, difficulties accessing food and safe water and more. The money will help to provide food assistance, with 4.9 million people facing “acute food insecurity”, according to the US.

There will also be a new Haiti Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit to investigate crimes across countries, including those with a US connection. It will focus on firearms and ammunition smuggling, human trafficking and transnational gang activity.