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VC Forum Discusses Bridgetown Initiative
Barbados is a small country with big ideas, and it continues to show that size does not matter as it champions an ambitious plan to reform how climate adaptation and resilience are financed for developing countries. I ts latest efforts are bearing fruit in intangible ways. The Bridgetown Initiative , which seeks to give greater protection to climate- vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean and elsewhere, has become a talking point in regional and international public spaces since its introduction in 2022. It has garnered the attention of the United Nations , the World Economic Forum , and other global organisations and was discussed at a meeting in March 2023 between its chief spokesperson Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley and President of France Emmanuel Macron . Prime Minister Mottley received the 2021
Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley (left) and President of France Emmanuel Macron
Champion of the Earth Award , which is the United Nation's highest environmental award; and at the recent Minuch Security Conference, the 2024 Ewald von Kleist Award for her efforts to advance climate action, justice and security. In the Caribbean, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) sought to raise awareness about the measure and its implications during a Vice-Chancellor’s Forum held on 30 March 2023. The discussion involved Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kerrie Symmonds ; UWI Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles ; Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados for Investment and Financial Service, Professor Avinash Persaud ; Head of the European Union Delegation to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, the OECS and CARICOM/CARIFORUM, Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska ; and Director of Greening Sovereign Debt, The Nature Conservancy, Kevin Bender .
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