A landmark $70.2 million climate resilience initiative is set to transform the lives of more than 8,000 people across eight high-risk communities in Dominica, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced during a recent press briefing.
Named the Dominica Community Resilience Enhancement Project (DOMCREP), the initiative is financed by the Green Climate Fund and executed in collaboration with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. Skerrit framed the investment as a targeted boost for three of the island nation’s most critical pillars: its people, local communities, and the agricultural sector.
Under the project, over 520 smallholder farmers and agricultural processors will gain access to cutting-edge climate-smart agricultural tools, upgraded irrigation infrastructure, commercial greenhouses, and other tailored support. These interventions are designed to shore up the country’s domestic food security, raise overall agricultural output, and directly increase household incomes for working farmers, Skerrit explained. Beyond agriculture, the program will also upgrade critical water infrastructure to improve long-term water security, reinforce national emergency response systems, and boost local communities’ ability to withstand and recover from extreme weather events that have grown increasingly frequent due to climate change.
Skerrit emphasized that DOMCREP marks another major milestone in Dominica’s decades-long push to build national climate resilience. For years, the island government has prioritized investments in climate-adapted infrastructure, including disaster-resistant housing, reinforced roads and bridges, upgraded healthcare and educational facilities, expanded renewable energy capacity, and improved early warning and disaster preparedness networks. DOMCREP builds on this existing foundation by centering the needs of communities and populations that are disproportionately exposed to climate harms, equipping them to adapt to shifting conditions, bounce back faster after disasters, and grow sustainably.
The eight communities set to directly receive funding and support are Campbell, Colihaut, Coulibistrie, Pichelin, Bagatelle, Good Hope, Petite Soufriere, and San Sauveur. Skerrit called on residents, participating farmers, processors, local community organizations, women, and youth to actively take advantage of the training, funding, and economic opportunities the project will roll out in the coming months. He added that the long-term success of the initiative will hinge on full community participation, cross-stakeholder collaboration, and local ownership of the resilience projects.
“DOMCREP is first and foremost an investment in people,” Skerrit said. “It is an investment in food security, economic opportunity, and community resilience. Most importantly, it is an investment in a future where our communities are stronger, more self-reliant, and better prepared to face the unrelenting challenges of a changing climate.”
In addition to DOMCREP, Skerrit revealed that the Dominican government is advancing two additional climate-focused proposals worth a combined $187 million in partnership with the 5Cs initiative, which supports local citrus, cocoa, coffee, coconut, and cannabis sectors. A portion of these funds will be allocated to repairing critical road edge failures, particularly in the heavily impacted Belles region of the island.