Dominica says it is close to reaching its sustainable development goals
Dominica is confident that it will be able to meet all of its sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
This is according to Vince Henderson, Dominica’s Minister for Planning, Economic Development, Climate Resilience, Sustainable Development, and Renewable Energy.
Henderson said that while Hurricane Maria placed Dominica “under economic hardship”—with the island losing 226 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), the disaster gave the government a head start in getting its sustainable development goals going.
“This disaster did not only impact the physical environment or country’s economic growth trajectory but also exposed Dominica’s socio-economic vulnerabilities, inflicting hardship on our people,” said Henderson during his presentation of Dominica’s voluntary national review at the United Nations Economic and Social Council High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on July 13 in New York.
“Notwithstanding, Hurricane Maria provided us with a unique opportunity to review our development pathway and create new solutions and ambitions to develop our sustainable development prospects,” he said.
Three key policy documents have defined Dominica’s 2030 Agenda: The National Resilience Development Strategy (NRDS), Dominica’s Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020 – 2030 (CRRP), and the Disaster Risk Financing Strategy.
Part of Dominica’s CRRP is the Resilient Housing Scheme, which aims “to transform the structural reliability of the nation’s housing to extreme weather and relocate those currently located in physically vulnerable locations.”
The government has set its target that 90 percent of the housing stock will be climate-resilient by 2030 “government to meet its target of 90% of housing stock to be resilient by 2030, through a combination of the construction of 5,000 new resilient homes for vulnerable citizens.”
To execute this goal, Dominica rolled out its Housing Revolution Initiative, which has been heavily supported by the World Bank and the island’s Citizenship by Investment programme.
Most of the housing projects were developed by MMC Development Ltd. founded by Anthony Haiden. To date, more than a thousand homes have been built under the auspices of MMCE and more than 22 construction projects, including the region’s first international airport, are being overseen by the company.
Henderson said that while Dominica is on its way to achieving its SDGs, the country still needs the support of the global community to achieve these goals by 2030 as the road leading to the finish line is not without any difficulties.
“As a global community, we must recognize that small island states need more to move apace to 2030. But we can only do so with the partnership and commitment of this community, otherwise, we will be traveling a long and lonely road to 2030,” Henderson said.