Overview                                                       Having gained independence from Britain on 7 February, 1974, Grenada known as the ‘Spice Isle, is a parliamentary representative democracy, with the Prime Minister as head of Government. The country, home to 112,523 people, is a sovereign state located in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of Grenada, Carriacou, Petite Martinique and several smaller, uninhabited islands.

UNDP has a dedicated space in Saint George’s, provided by the Government of Grenada with two members of staff. A Project Coordinator and a Finance & Administrative Assistant dedicated to two specific projects on Climate Resilient Agriculture and Ridge to Reef. The rest of the UNDP team generally operates from Barbados.

Some of the main recent projects and initiatives are listed below:

Climate Resilient Agriculture
The Climate-Resilient Agriculture for Integrated Landscape Management project works to operationalise integrated agroecosystem management through mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in the production landscape and increasing resilience of the agricultural system to emerge stronger from the pandemic. The activities under this project will contribute to the attainment of national development priorities and SDGs. Implementing technologies that support climate-resilient agriculture will be a key aspect of the initiative, with participation from public and private sectors, academia, and civil society. Proposed activities include a digital agriculture challenge to provide small grants towards digital transformation of the sector to facilitate developmental leapfrogging and resilience building. 

Ridge to Reef
The objective of the  Ridge to Reef (R2R) - “ Implementing a Ridge to Reef’ approach to protecting biodiversity and ecosystem functions within and around Protected Areas (PAs) in Grenada” project is to improve the resilience of the biodiversity and ecosystem functions associated with marine and terrestrial Protected Areas (PAs). The Protected Areas' improved defence against threats such as Climate Change were realised through the adoption of an integrated “Ridge to Reef” approach that applies targeted sustainable land management practices. This project is possible thanks to the financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and it is implemented by the Ministry of Climate Resilience, the Environment, Forestry, Fisheries, Disaster Management and Information. This project will close in Q2 of 2021.

Spotlight
UNDP is leading two pillars of the Grenada Spotlight Initiative, which supports a comprehensive national programme to contribute to the end of family violence and all forms of violence against women and girls in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The programme is comprised of six outcome areas of which UNDP leads the implementation of Pillars 2 and 5, with UN Women, UNICEF and PAHO leading the implementation of others. Under Pillar 2, the programme will address the legislative and policy gaps that create an environment of impunity as it relates to family violence while under Pillar 5, the Initiative will ensure that data relevant to family violence in Grenada, Petite Martinique and Carriacou is rigorously collected and effectively used to improve prevention and response.

Blue Economy: integrated national financing framework (INFF)
The SDG Fund supported Harnessing Blue Economy Finance for SIDS Recovery and Sustainable Development (UNDP, UNEP, FAO), where UNDP as lead is supporting the development of national integrated finance frameworks for financing the blue economy. The Joint Programme’s emphasis will be on the development of an enabling and supporting environment for financing the Blue Economy, through different measures: the identification of policy and regulation gaps, a methodology to identify key Blue Economy opportunities, and the definition of specific financing mechanisms to achieve resilient growth. The three countries will benefit from upscaling the UN’s existing initiatives with the private sector, through the establishment of a public-private consortium that will leverage substantial resources from the private sector.

United Nations Human Security Trust Fund (UNHSTF): Building Effective Resilience for Human Security in the Caribbean Countries: The Imperative of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in a Strengthened Agriculture (and related Agri/Fisheries Small Business) Sector
This sub-regional joint programme (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia) seeks to enhance human security by advancing comprehensive and gender-responsive development with a focus on key economic sectors in the Caribbean, including farming, fishing, agri-fisheries and related small business activities. Participating UN agencies include UNDP, UN Women, FAO and ILO. Under this joint programme, UNDP focusses on the impact of structural adjustment programmes and national policies on smallholder farmers, fisherfolk and related small businesses. Relevant advocacy initiatives to support improvements in these sectors will also be developed in partnership with national steering committees and other partners. This project ends in January 2022.

Climate Promise
In the context of the Climate Promise, UNDP has offered support to revise Grenada’s Nationally Determined Contributions. The project is also supporting Grenada's endeavour to implement the targets set out in its recently submitted NDCs by supporting the development of a financial resource mobilisation roadmap. This roadmap would outline avenues for investment from international sources as well as from the private sector, while also highlighting areas through which the national budget can incorporate matters dealing with climate change.

COVID-19 response 2020: HEAT Report and grants
For the first phase of the UNDP response to COVID-19, in partnership with UNICEF and UN Women, UNDP produced a Human and Economic  Impact Assessment (currently under government review). Equally, UNDP provided technical assistance to the garment industry in Grenada as well as grants to 10 MSMEs affected by the impact of COVID-19 to adapt their businesses to the new reality.

COVID-19 response 2021: Future Tourism: Rethinking Tourism and MSMEs in times of COVID-19 (FUT-Tourism)
The FUT-Tourism project is a sub-regional project that aims at supporting Governments on policy solutions and dialogues on the future of the tourism sector, greatly affected by COVID-19. The project will also provide technical assistance, training, mentoring and grants to MSMEs within the sector affected by the pandemic. This project spans from January 2021 to the end of Q2 of 2022.

CariSECURE
Grenada is also one of the beneficiary countries of CariSECURE. This project is aimed at reducing the incidence of crime by youth, promoting the development of policies that address violence and facilitate effective programming in eight Southern and Eastern Caribbean countries through the use of quality, comparable and reliable national citizen security information. CariSECURE is funded by the United States Agency for International Development Mission for Eastern and Southern Caribbean (USAID). The project will conclude on September 2021, with its substantive deliverable this year being the Police Records Management Information System (PRMIS) which is a digital crime data collection system for the RGPF to be launched in July 2021.

EnGenDER
Grenada is also a beneficiary of the regional EnGenDER project and benefits from training in gender mainstreaming in climate action plans and the development of these sector-level action plans. The major objective of the project in-country is to improve national capacity for gender-responsive climate change planning to also improve integrated recovery planning and frameworks.

Smart Small State

In late 2020 the MCO supported the Government of Grenada to conduct a rapid assessment of the country's readiness to become a Small Smart State (SSS). Through consultations with key government and private sector stakeholders and drawing upon international examples, the project team defined a conceptual roadmap and immediate steps to usher in this Smart Grenada. The vision aims to deliver economic growth and development for the country, by harnessing digitalisation as an enabler to increased productivity in areas such as tourism, government administration, commerce, education and agriculture.

Transition from Education to Employment (TE2T) Initiative
Upon request from the Ministry with Responsibility for Youth Development within the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture & The Arts, UNDP, in collaboration with ILO and the UWI recently conducted an independent technical review of the education and youth employment landscape in Grenada. The report provided recommendations on the main bottlenecks and possible solutions for a successful transition from the current vocational training systems and curricula, as well as other education levels, to the current and future labour market needs, with a particular focus on the Blue Economy. The report is accessible here.

GEF-SGP
The Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP) has been operational in Grenada since 1994 and works to strengthen national capacities, by providing financial and technical support to community projects that conserve and restore the environment, while enhancing people's wellbeing and livelihoods. Throughout its work, the GEF-SGP demonstrates that community action can maintain a fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives. From 2015, the programme has provided funding (US$1.7 million) to an estimated 46 projects all led by local community groups throughout Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique within thematic areas such as Community Based Conservation, Sustainable Agriculture, Low-carbon Energy initiatives.

Laptops procurement
In September 2020, upon request from the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Religious Affairs and Information, UNDP procured 3,600 laptops and 112 charging stations to facilitate the administering of the CPEA and CSEC online exams for students and teachers in primary schools. The laptops promote a deeper ICT integration in the teaching/learning process, preparation for future CPEA, and administering upcoming CPEA online exams.

Did you know?
Grenada is the home of the world’s first underwater sculpture park!