Dominican Republic selected for a new project funded under the IRIS initiative of the CDRI

New Delhi - The Dominican Republic will benefit from one of the twelve projects selected for funding under the second cohort of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) program Infrastructures for Resilient Island States (IRIS). The 12 projects will be implemented across 18 Small Island Developing States and will focus on strengthening resilience of key infrastructure sectors including transport, power, telecommunications, water, health, and education.

The selected project will focus on strengthening “socially inclusive and resilient educational infrastructure” in the Dominican Republic, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda. With a regional scope, it aims to “increase school and education continuity post-disaster” in the Caribbeans.  The announcement was made by Amit Prothi, Director-General of the Coalition, at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This project will be the third IRIS initiative implemented in the Dominican Republic. As stated during the COP29 by Max Puig, Executive Vice President of the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism of the Dominican Republic, it will complement two ongoing initiatives  “to develop an early warning system for potential natural events with catastrophic potential” already approved by the Coalition.

The CDRI is a coalition led by India with the aim of promoting the development of resilient infrastructure against climate and disaster risks, through technical assistances, financial resources and knowledge sharing; along with its international partners, it also manages collaborative research projects and a global database on infrastructure and resilience.