Caribbean Countries Hoping UK Will Back a Plan to Aid Hurricane Recovery

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada – Caribbean countries are awaiting a response from the United Kingdom government to their request that London back a “Marshall plan” to rebuild their devastated countries following the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 1.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves (center) flanked by his Dominican counterpart Roosevelt Skerrit and Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith (GIS Grenada)“I haven’t gotten a formal response from him as yet. But as I’ve said, there is a small sum which was allocated to St. Vincent towards relief. But there’s a lots of resources for relief required, but far more wanting to be required for recovery and reconstruction,” St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Gonsalves is among regional leaders attending the 47th regular meeting of CARICOM that ends here later on Tuesday. It had originally been schedule for July 3-5, but had to be postponed due to Hurricane Beryl’s passage through the Caribbean at the time.

The category four storm left a trail of death and destruction in Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica.

.The letter, which was signed by the leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, his Grenadian counterpart and now CARICOM chairman Dickon Mitchell and Gonsalves, was addressed to the then foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves and pointed to the continuous pattern of destructive hurricanes in the Caribbean.

On 5 July Lammy announced a half million pounds (One GBP=US$1.26 cents)package for Caribbean countries affected by Beryl and promised to prioritise the climate emergency

Britain’s High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Scott Furssedonn-Wood, told CMC briefly that he is unaware of the letter that had proposed a similar initiative to the US’s US$13 billion Marshall plan to rebuild Europe after the second world war.

The regional countries proposed “Marshall plan” would call for  cheaper loans, debt restructuring options, improved access to grants for climate-related damage and a large-scale programme to build green and resilient infrastructure and stronger economies.

“We’ve got a new government in the United Kingdom. They’ve been in office now for just a month. I haven’t yet had an opportunity to talk to the foreign sector about these things, but I’m hoping to over the next week.

“I’m sure we’d be very interested to read the letter and to see what might be possible. But for now, that’s,  all I can say, I think,” Furssedonn-Wood told CMC.

Gonsalves said that following Britain’s general election in July in which the Labour Party headed by Sir Keir Starmer  ended 14 years of Conservative government, he wrote a congratulatory message to the new British prime minister.

“On this occasion specifically about the Marshall Plan, we have raised that issue before, not not just the British, but the Europeans, the Americans, the Canadians, the equivalent of a Marshall Plan. We have raised that before. I wrote Prime Minister Starmer after Hurricane Barry, of course, to congratulate him and to raise the issue of the matter of relief, recovery and reconstruction.

“Of course, they (British) sent for Grenada and St. Vincent and Grenadines  some resources for relief …and you know, these things we have basically on our own, though we get important assistance from several countries, including from the Caribbean and from one or two agencies of the UN, like, for instance, the World Food Programme….”

Gonsalves said that regional leaders had a working breakfast meeting with the Canadian Minister for International Development, Ahmed Hussen,  and that he had also held a bilateral discussions with the Canadian minister.

“We may be making some progress with repurposing some resources and making some additional resources available,” he said, noting that in the case of his country  “I’m very concerned about housing solutions, because in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at least 400 million Eastern Caribbean dollars (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) would be required for housing”.

Gonsalves said that over 4,000 houses have to be rebuilt or repaired at different levels, acknowledging “it’s a huge task”

Gonsalves said that the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) had undertaken a partial rapid needs assessment. And “they estimated EC$335 million would be required for housing alone.

“As I say, our estimate is in excess of EC400 million. The grade, which is a World Bank tool for dealing with a global rapid post-disaster damage assessment, they estimate that St. Vincent and Grenadines will need EC$640 million.

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, whose country is now recovering from the multi-billion dollar or 226 per cent economic battering it took when Hurricane Maria hit in 2018,  said the Caribbean is in desperate need for urgent assistance.

“You’ve seen what happened with Hurricane Beryl, the impact and a few years ago Dominica and Barbuda, and many of the other islands affected,” he told CMC, adding that “now you have Jamaica, you have St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, and, of course, Barbados affected by these hurricanes.

“I mean, clearly, the Caribbean needs access to this climate financing and they need it now and one cannot go through this bureaucratic, prolonged process of accessing those funds. ”

Skerrit said that a Marshall plan is “completely different,” adding “there has to be a clearer economic and financial offering to the Caribbean…similar to what was offered to Europe and allowed Europe to rebound from its many man-made disasters”.