Women and Youth being positioned in the center of Climate Resilience and Safety in Barbados 

Bridgetown, December 4, 2024:  Women and youth in the northern town of Speightstown in Barbados are among key groups earmarked to be empowered to build climate resilience and safety in their community.

The opportunity will be fueled through a new Joint Programme entitled: “Putting Youth and Women in the Center of Climate Resilience and Safety in Barbados” that is being implemented by UN Women (the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) and UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), in collaboration with the Government of Barbados. Speightstown has been identified as the focus of the project given its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and natural hazards, its relatively large population within Barbados’ urban corridor, and that the fact that it is a hub for employment and services for residents.
The Joint Programme aims to strengthen climate resilience and reduce violence and harassment in public spaces, to ensure that all persons can enjoy their right to sustainable and accessible public spaces, and that children can have access to safe and resilient schools.

Strategic support will be provided to communities, schools, civil society organizations, urban planners, development organizations, and government agencies, in their efforts to develop urban spaces and infrastructure that are resilient, through inclusive and participatory planning processes. The project will also target persons who use public spaces for living, work and recreational activities, with a focus on women, youth, and children, as well as other groups who are often marginalized or omitted from the planning of urban space renewal and usage. It is expected that the project’s activities and results will influence the wider Barbados population, with key lessons being shared from the interventions and experiences in Speightstown.

Chair of the St. Peter Parish Organizing Committee, Jacqueline Gill, welcomed the UN’s partnership with the Speightstown community.

“The St. Peter Parish Organising Committee is honoured to collaborate with UN Women and UNICEF on this project. This initiative reflects our shared commitment to fostering a more inclusive, resilient, and equitable future for Speightstown. By placing women and youth at the heart of climate action and safety, we are not only addressing critical challenges but empowering our community to lead the way in sustainable development. Together, we are building a stronger foundation for Speightstown to thrive in the face of climate change while ensuring no voice is left unheard,” she said.

As the lead agency for the Joint Programme, Representative UN Women Multi-Country Office - Caribbean, Tonni Brodber, observed that we can often see a disconnect between the strategies and plans being undertaken for redeveloping and growing our important urban spaces in the Caribbean, with the realities being experienced by people living and working in them.

She maintained: “What are the changes going to do for the girl child trying to make her way to and from school safely, with often poorly lit streets and increasing levels of violence; for the women running small businesses that are constantly at risk and often affected by flooding brought on from changes in climatic conditions with few options for securing their assets and building back if impacted; for the men and women working in key industries like fishing or services who are left with irreplaceable loss and damage. We all agree that we need to work towards increasing resilience of our places and our people to all types of shocks, but this must be done with their voices included.”

To this end, the  Joint Programme will strengthen efforts to enhance safety, capacity, resilience and opportunity for whole communities, by enabling vital participation of community actors in the creation of public spaces and communities that are climate resilient, inclusive, smart and safe for everyone. 
Commenting on the Project, Acting UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean Area, Jean-Benoit Manhes stated: “we look forward to closely working with the women and children of Speightstown, a community highly vulnerable to climate change, on strategies that strengthen their resilience in line with their needs and ideas.”

The programme will be funded by the Joint SDG Fund, the UN’s flagship global fund charged with the mandate of supporting the localization of the SDGs to accelerate progress at the country-level.

UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Simon Springett, welcomed the boost to support SDG improvement at the local level, noting: “the Sustainable Development Goals are most real at the local level. It is at that level that people can translate the global goals into transformative actions to contribute to a better future for all.”

The Project, which will be implemented over the next 12 months, is expected to directly benefit at least 3,500 persons, including some 1,500 women, many of whom are of African descent, and 1,000 children and youth in schools. At the institutional level, approximately 30 organizations or departments, including targeted women and youth-led civil society organizations, are the expected beneficiaries of efforts to promote their inclusion and capacity.