ROSEAU, The Commonwealth of Dominica, October 26, 2017 – Prime Minister Skerrit and World Bank Vice President Jorge Familiar met today to discuss the initial findings of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment and the World Bank support for resilient recovery and reconstruction. World Bank Vice President Familiar reaffirmed his deepest solidarity and support to the people of Dominica.
“We welcome the World Bank’s assistance and solidarity in our endeavours to build the first climate resilient nation. We are working hard and quickly at the task but recognise that it is of a scale and global importance that requires significant international support”, said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
The visit, following the high-level Caribbean roundtable in Washington on October 13, signals the World Bank’s continued commitment to fast track assistance to Dominica in building back better and more resilient in the wake of Hurricane Maria. A World Bank team was deployed to Dominica, working with partners, to assist the government in assessing the damages and start planning the reconstruction.
As part of the Hurricane response, the World Bank is preparing a financial package of over US$100 million for Dominica to provide immediate support to farmers, rebuild resilient public infrastructure, strengthen resilience, and help create financial buffers.
“In the face of a disaster such as the one faced by Dominica where every small town, every street, every person has been affected, recovery requires support from all partners for reconstruction and resilience”, said World Bank Vice President Jorge Familiar. “I commended Prime Minister Skerrit for his vision of making Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world and assured the Prime Minister that Dominica can count on our full support in turning this tragic event into an opportunity to build back stronger and plan for a more sustainable future”.
Preliminary results from the rapid damage and loss assessment jointly conducted with the World Bank, the UN, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, and the European Union, estimate that Hurricane Maria brought damage and losses of over 200 percent of annual GDP, equivalent to approximately US$ 1.3 billion. Public infrastructure, electricity and telecom networks, housing and agriculture sectors suffered the biggest damages.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Skerrit requested support for providing small grants to farmers and small businesses impacted by the Hurricane. In response, World Bank Vice President confirmed the immediate availability of US$10 million to help support small farmers rebuild their livelihoods.
Concluding the meeting, World Bank Vice President reaffirmed the institution’s strong coordination with international partners including at the upcoming partners conference led by CARICOM with support of UNDP on November 21 in New York.
Some see while others don’t! Dominica is bigger than i thought in positioning itself in the one world Government. Do we realize that we have always had fresh running water, geothermal power, wind power, solar power, Hydro(water) power, agricultural lands, a tourist destination, central in the eastern Caribbean in terms of location… UNESCO identifies us as a top source of fresh water in the near future…..
What are waiting for? We have everything, yet we have nothing! We lack the most important person in our lives Jesus Christ. Therefore we cannot see our way!
Dominica is a blessing but it may not necessarily be blessed! open your eyes people. This is not about Mr. Skerrit or Mr. Linton. It is about us and our future. Neither will save us but the living God! Not the world bank, not the new world order, not money but Jesus Christ!
Wake up people He that keepeth Israel shall not slumber nor sleep! Go touch Israel? Go!
People, People, People, He is coming soon!
Glory to God!
Gaston Browne, the Hon. PM of Antigua on rebuilding Barbuda “… cannot expect us to go cap-in-hand to the international community beg money”…”even if we were to borrow it, we would not be able to REPAY”.
The money Skerrit is begging for, majority will be in form of loans, HAS HE GIVEN ANY THOUGHT AS TO HOW DOMINICA IS GOING TO PAY IT BACK????
Dominica did not have booming sectors prior to Maria… Agriculture was holding on by a very very thin thread, fishing well that was practically non-existence and tourism was crawling to make strides…only thing we had was CBI which was plagued with issues…. now post Maria, we have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING …. SO AGAIN I ASK….HOW IS DOMINICA GOING TO PAY BACK THESE LOANS??????
“I commended Prime Minister Skerrit for his vision of making Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world.” This so called compliment reminds me of the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 3, where each was complemented by the angel but that compliment quickly changed into some serious warning of impending judgement against them.
“I commended Prime Minister Skerrit for his vision of making Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world …” Folks, this is NOT a compliment! Please don’t take it as a complement to Skerrit. It is a diplomat using some diplomatic complement to ridicule Skerrit for talking his foolishness about making Dominica the FIRST climate resilient nation IN THE WORLD!! Mr. Familiar is very FAMILIAR with these jokes and at the back of his head he must be saying if only poor Skerrit knew what is in store for him. FIRST CLIMATE NATION MY FOOT! The man knows the ONLY thing Skerrit can make Dominica FIRST in is corruption and sale of diplomatic passport.
oh lord jesus, help some people. I billion starts with I dollar. We must be grateful for 1 hundred million which we didn’t have and badly need. How ungrateful can one be?
Boy I don’t trust these blue eyes folks you know. They are very smart and sometimes they are FBI investigators on a secret mission you know. I hope this guy is not an investigator using joint press briefing to befriend PM and later invite him to get Tony to accompany him to some bank that does not exist for some money ,only to find out everyone there is dressed in a uniform and instead of money they start to open photos of Lap Seng, Madueke, Monfared, the one from North Korea that CNN told the world about two weeks ago, and the one from China NY post told the world about two weeks ago and ask him why these people who all have some money laundering background, have a Dominica passport. Boy Skerro and Tony becareful!
….he really starts looking like a crape, doesn’t he?
…sorry I meant to say “crapaud”, like the emblem of our National Bank, which he controls.
Do the maths, 1.3 billion in damages, a financial package of 1 hundred million.
Do you understand what you read? The statement says immediate, that means right now not long term. Plus, there will be other meetings with international partners meaning more funds will be made available. We must learn to read and think critically.
Let’s hope that we get the 1.3 billion US for reconstruction. Let’s hope that Dominica’s foreign dept is cut by at least 50%. Let’s hope that the 100 USD is a grant. We need every dime and /or cent.