Lessons for development partners from climate finance support programmes in the Pacific and Caribbean. Working paper
The small size of SIDS is a strength - not a weakness.
For capacity strengthening to be effective rather than burdensome, development partners should provide aid in ways that work for small states.
This working paper compares the challenges in SIDS versus larger states - highlighting the innovative governance strategies small states use. Creating strategies that work with, rather than around, these systems and strengths is key to successful capacity strengthening initiatives.
The study draws on four case studies on helping SIDS in the Caribbean and Pacific regions access and use climate finance. These stories are important not just because of the urgency of climate adaptation, but because they illustrate the proposed principles in action and provide a basis for drawing broader lessons about strengthening capacity in SIDS.
Key principles and policy recommendations
The authors propose four principles for donors to deploy in attempts to strengthen SIDS' capacities, with policy examples on how to achieve these:
- Understand that smallness is a source of resilience, not a deficit to be overcome.
- Work on the basis that capacity takes longer to strengthen than in a single-project timeframe.
- Support SIDS-owned governance strategies to overcome human capacity constraints.
- Ensure actions counteract burdens created by the development architecture itself.