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Caribbean Development Trends

ONE Caribbean: A Collaborative Approach for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean

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Coordinated efforts to solve critical shared challenges in the Caribbean is an urgent mandate for improving lives in the region. Heeding this call from Caribbean governments, the IDB, IDB Invest and IDB Lab introduced in 2024 a strategic framework and regional program, ONE Caribbean. 

ONE Caribbean provides a structure to identify, pilot, support and prioritize projects with high regional impact by bringing a whole-of-bank focus to the region — including initiatives led by its private-sector arm in IDB Invest and IDB Lab, its innovation hub.  

This regional initiative complements country-specific programs and leverages relationships with Caribbean governments, regional stakeholders, multilateral organizations, civil society, the private sector and other development partners.  

Four Priority Areas  

With the opportunities for change in mind, four incisive priority areas guide project selection under ONE Caribbean. These priority areas were set in direct response to demand from the region and considering emerging challenges as it recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.  They are: 

  • Climate adaptation and resilience, and disaster-risk management 
  • Citizen security 
  • Private sector development  
  • Food security  

To ensure success in these areas, improved transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of institutions is crucial, as is enhancing the ease of doing business in the public and private-sector spheres by using digital tools and technologies. As a result, two cross-cutting issues underpin the initiative: digitalization of the public sector and strengthening institutional capacity. 

ONE Caribbean countries are IDB members — Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, The Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago — while countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will indirectly benefit through the IDB’s partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).  

ONE Caribbean Funding  

ONE Caribbean will leverage the significant resources of the IDB already deployed in the Caribbean, in addition to a dedicated US$20 million in resources to pilot innovative solutions to address the regions needs in the four pillar areas referenced prior. Additional funding will be crowded in, directly to support regional and national engagements and to stand-up a new Multi-Donor Trust Fund.  The UK has recently announced a £5 million (approx. US$6.2 million) contribution.  

The IDB is the largest development bank lender in the region with public sector financing over US$2.2 billion between 2022 and 2023. IDB Invest has made a total commitment of US$1.2 billion between 2016 and 2024 and will continue to commit at least 10% of its total financing towards small and island countries and 20% of approved IDB Labs projects have been in small and island states.   

ONE Caribbean Project Preparation Support  

A key component to ONE Caribbean’s success will be addressing the challenges experienced by many countries in designing climate-resilient projects for investment. Noting lessons learnt from within the region, the IDB’s project preparation coordinating mechanism will support project preparation and help attract investment, whether public or private, into the region.   

While the IDB has been working in individual countries to address the project preparation challenge, including providing technical assistance for a project preparation facility in Jamaica in 2023, it is clear that more support is needed. In the area of climate financing alone, the IMF estimates that US$100 billion is needed for adaptation to climate-related risks in the region but notes that only US$800 million has been approved from climate funds. It partly attributes the glaring gap to a need for significantly improved project preparation.   

A Commitment to Collaboration for Development 

It is vital for the Caribbean to accelerate collective action to solve shared challenges. The IDB, IDB Invest and IDB Lab are committed to supporting this region by fostering collaboration, innovation and partnership through the ONE Caribbean strategic framework and regional program.    

 Learn more about the ONE Caribbean framework and regional program and download the board-approved document here.  


Anton Edmunds

A citizen of Barbados and Saint Lucia, Anton Edmunds’ experience spans over 25 years of working in management and leadership roles in regional governments, development organizations, and the private sector. Within the IDB, he has served as an Advisor on the Caribbean in the Office of the Presidency, and as staff since September 2022, has been an Operations Principal Advisor in VPC and CCB supporting strategic initiatives focused on the development of Caribbean countries and stakeholder engagement, in collaboration with VPS, IDB Lab and IDB Invest. Immediately prior to joining the IDB, he was from 2016-2021, Ambassador of St. Lucia to the United States and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). He was also that country’s (non-resident) High Commissioner to Canada and (non-resident) Ambassador to Mexico. He has been a contributor to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin American Advisor publication; to the Atlantic Council’s Latin America Initiative; a Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and was the Chair of the Caribbean Program at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute from 2014 – 2016. Anton holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from American University and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

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