Planning for Climate Change in Small Island Developing States: Can Dominica’s Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan Be a Model for Transformation in the Caribbean?

In response to a series of historical and contemporary extreme weather events, Dominica, a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Caribbean, is pursuing an objective of climate resilience by 2030. In 2018, the Government developed the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020–2030 (CRRP) in the context of its National Resilience Development Strategy. These policy responses have been hailed as transformational. In this paper, we focus on the CRRP and investigate its quality. To achieve this, we conduct a desk-based qualitative assessment of the CRRP’s (1) information base; (2) vision, goals and objectives; (3) priorities and options; (4) actions and implementation; and (5) monitoring and evaluation. We find that the CRRP is strongest on (1) and (3), which is not uncommon for similar policies. We also discuss whether it can be a model for transformation in the Caribbean, given the region’s long history with trying to recover from and build resilience to disasters. We conclude that, in order for it to be used as a model, there are three key factors that other jurisdictions would need to consider. The first consideration is developing mechanisms for equitably sharing any benefits derived from the blue economy. The second consideration is centering Indigenous perspectives in environmental policy- and decision-making. The third consideration is adequately accounting for exogenous, unexpected risks. Given these three considerations, we see this study as contributing to discussions about what constitutes good policy in a SIDS context, which is an underexplored area in the existing academic literature.