Ten women entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector in Jamaica received stipends valued at $100,000 Jamaica Dollars to scale their businesses under the Women’s Entrepreneurship Support (WES) Project. The stipends were financed through the Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) Project, a project funded by the Government of Canada and UK FCDO, which is UNDP-led with co-implementation by UN Women, WFP and CDEMA.

“COVID-19 brought about virtual change and we were not ready…the training helped us to make the change.” ~Training Participant. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its pervasive socio-economic impacts, women across the Caribbean have had to find innovative ways to continue to generate income to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities. Thanks to a United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS)supported training programme, entitled: &ldquo...

Investments with a gender lens are important but they alone are not enough. Often times, financial institutions put credit lines in place, but they come and go. What is needed is business support advisory, and evidence.

Under a joint UN programme, UN Women, UNICEF and the OECS Commission are supporting national budget directors and finance officers from the Eastern Caribbean in conducting the gender analysis to design and cost measures, the outcome of which are budgets that are child and gender responsive.

The call is being made for a more comprehensive approach to social safety nets in the region to ensure that they meets the needs of those in most need and position these beneficiaries to move towards self-reliance and out of poverty.