Resilient and affordable housing in the Caribbean: Policy recommendations towards a transformative, green and inclusive recovery strategy. Policy Brief

Abstract

The Caribbean faces multidimensional vulnerabilities driven by climate change and aggravated by Small Island Developing States’ natural and economic characteristics (SIDS). A critical natural feature of SIDS is the extreme vulnerability to climate-change-induced events. Economically, the Caribbean has followed the global trend of seeing its urban areas swell during the last decades. Moreover, the region’s coastal areas expose human settlements, infrastructure, and businesses to external shocks, such as climate change-induced extreme weather events. In addition, the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) introduced a new dimension to these vulnerabilities, widening inequalities and demanding new and more localized approaches to how Caribbean countries respond to the pandemic’s economic and social fallouts.