La Grande Caraïbe décryptée depuis 2015
ONE Caribbean: Betting on a Regional Response to the Caribbean’s Structural Vulnerabilities
The Caribbean faces a brutal equation: extreme climate vulnerability, persistent insecurity, low productivity, food dependency, and tight fiscal margins. Against this backdrop, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group has launched ONE Caribbean — the Partnering for Caribbean Development Framework — a regional strategic framework designed to address these challenges collectively.
This framework was formalised in a public document in February 2024 and complemented by the establishment of a Project Preparation Coordination (PPC) mechanism in February 2025.
The goal: to move from a fragmented approach to a structured regional strategy capable of mobilising financing and accelerating genuinely transformative projects.
Why a Regional Framework?
The mandate comes directly from the IDB’s Caribbean governors, who called for a « whole of Bank » approach — mobilising the entire Group (IDB, IDB Invest, IDB Lab) around the specific vulnerabilities of small island developing states.
The diagnosis is unambiguous:
- weak growth and sluggish productivity
- high exposure to natural disasters
- homicide rates among the highest in the world
- structural food dependency
- high public debt constraining investment.
The strategic document makes clear that small Caribbean markets cannot achieve critical mass without regional coordination.
The Countries Concerned
The direct beneficiaries are:
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Suriname
- Trinidad and Tobago.
Member states of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) benefit indirectly through the partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank.
The Four Strategic Pillars
ONE Caribbean focuses on four shared challenges, with two cross-cutting priorities: institutional strengthening and digital transformation.
1. Climate Adaptation and Risk Management
Between 1980 and 2020, losses from natural disasters averaged 2 to 3% of regional GDP per year. The Caribbean is one of the world’s most exposed regions to hurricanes, rising sea levels, and prolonged droughts. Some states see annual losses exceed several GDP points, permanently undermining their development trajectory.
This pillar targets four areas:
- developing resilient infrastructure
- improving risk assessment systems
- strengthening disaster management governance
- integrating climate clauses into private financing.
2. Citizen Security
The homicide rate across the Caribbean states concerned averages 24 per 100,000 inhabitants — roughly four times the global average.
A few striking figures:
- 54% of homicides are committed with firearms
- 46% of women who have been in a relationship have experienced violence
- more than a quarter of businesses report losses due to crime.
The direct economic cost of crime is estimated at around 3.7% of GDP on average.
The strategy goes beyond law enforcement. It incorporates prevention, educational policies, action against gender-based violence, and reintegration programmes.
3. Private Sector Development
SMEs account for between 60% and 70% of GDP in several Caribbean economies. Yet:
- productivity remains low
- private investment is insufficient
- infrastructure projects lack structure
- regulatory frameworks need modernising.
The region is estimated to need at least $19.6 billion in additional funding to cover infrastructure needs linked to the SDGs.
The ONE Caribbean framework aims to improve the business environment, structure public-private partnerships, and mobilise greater private capital.
4. Food Security
The situation is concerning:
- around 43% of the population of the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean faces food insecurity
- 60.6% of the population was moderately or severely food insecure in 2022
- the region imports the vast majority of its food, with a bill exceeding $8 billion
- climate change is intensifying constraints on arable land and water resources.
The stated objective: strengthen regional production, modernise agriculture, and reduce import dependency.
The Central Bottleneck: Project Preparation
The problem is not a shortage of ideas — it is a lack of properly prepared, bankable projects. The Infrascope report highlights that one of the main barriers to private investment in Latin America and the Caribbean is the insufficient number of structured projects.
The Project Preparation Coordination (PPC) mechanism aims to:
- identify and prioritise projects
- strengthen regulatory frameworks
- finance pre-feasibility and feasibility studies
- provide legal and financial project structuring
- connect projects to investors.
The mechanism is open to public, private, or PPP projects, provided they demonstrate regional impact. It is a strategic tool for turning political intentions into financeable projects.
A Pragmatic Approach
ONE Caribbean does not create a new institution. It coordinates, structures, and strengthens what already exists. Financing rests on:
- IDB Group lending resources
- an ordinary capital strategic programme
- a strategy for mobilising partners and multilateral funds.
This framework represents a serious attempt to break the vulnerability–disaster–debt–stagnation cycle. It acknowledges that:
- climate resilience is a condition of economic survival
- security is a condition of investment
- agriculture is a strategic issue
- project structuring is the crux of the matter.
The central question remains execution. The tools are in place. The priorities have been identified. Financing is potentially mobilisable. Success will depend on the ability of states and regional partners to translate this framework into concrete results. And in the Caribbean, that passage from paper to action has always been the real test.
