The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 9

The Hummingbird Vol. 11 No. 6

Addressing Water Security in the Caribbean

Building a climate resilient power sector in the context of the Caribbean small island developing States’ energy transition. Policy Brief

In Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS), electrical power outages are frequent in the aftermath of major weather events. While local service disruptions often last a few days after these events, nationwide power grid failures lasting several weeks, or months have resulted in enormous social and economic impacts. In 2017, Hurricane Maria left 90 per cent of the population of Dominica without access to electricity for over four months (Commonwealth of Dominica, 2020) and caused a systemwide collapse of Puerto Rico's power grid that took 11 months to be entirely restored (Campbell…

Resilient and affordable housing in the Caribbean: Policy recommendations towards a transformative, green and inclusive recovery strategy. Policy Brief

The Caribbean faces multidimensional vulnerabilities driven by climate change and aggravated by Small Island Developing States’ natural and economic characteristics (SIDS). A critical natural feature of SIDS is the extreme vulnerability to climate-change-induced events. Economically, the Caribbean has followed the global trend of seeing its urban areas swell during the last decades. Moreover, the region’s coastal areas expose human settlements, infrastructure, and businesses to external shocks, such as climate change-induced extreme weather events. In addition, the 2019 novel coronavirus disea…

Limiting Temperature Rise - What Does It Mean for Caribbean SIDS?

The Hummingbird Vol. 9 No. 2

Conceptualizing a circular economy in the Caribbean: perspectives and possibilities. Policy Brief

Although the notion of a circular economy (CE) has been conceived and debated for more than half a century (Henrysson and Nuur, 2021), it has gained considerable popularity in the lexicon of economists, ecologists and other development thinkers over the past two decades. The increasing evidence of the existential threat of human-induced climate change and the related imperatives of decarbonizing the global economy, have led to greater focus on strategies for a more sustainable use of the natural and environmental resource base.…

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 7

Environmental Big Push in the Caribbean

Caribbean in Brief: an information document for Caribbean Small Island Developing States

This brief is intended to provide general information on the upcoming United Nations Ocean Conference on scaling up ocean actions based on science and innovation for the implementation of Agenda 2030 - Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14), with a view to stimulating more active, engaged participation of the Caribbean in the discussions. The United Nations Ocean Conference will be co-chaired by Kenya and Portugal, and hosted by the Government of Portugal in Lisbon, during 2021. The objective of this conference is consistent with the 2017 UN General Assembly proclamation on the Decade of Oce…

The Hummingbird Vol. 7 No. 11

Policy Brief: Planning for resilience: an integrated approach to tackle climate change in the Caribbean

The Caribbean subregion is exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Vulnerability is a key multidimensional concept at the heart of resilience building, relating to each country’s multiple spatial and socioeconomic risks and conditions. In fact, due to its geographical location and concentration of population and activities in low-lying coastal areas, the Caribbean is the second most hazard-prone region in the world...Moreover, impacts of extreme weather events on Caribbean small economies are of national proportions. For example, in the hurricane s…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.1

La incertidumbre de los recursos hídricos y sus riesgos frente al cambio climático: herramientas para los tomadores de decisiones de los sectores público y privado

Tal vez el principal canal de transmisión de los impactos del cambio climático sobre las actividades económicas y humanas es a través de la disponibilidad de los recursos hídricos. Reconociendo la necesidad de generar políticas que permitan gestionar los riesgos que imponen las nuevas condiciones climáticas sobre los recursos hídricos desde los sectores público y privado, la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), en conjunto con el International Development Research Centre (IDRC) de Canadá, el Programa CEPAL-BMZ/GIZ y la Cámara Internacional de Comercio (ICC), organizó los…

Políticas e institucionalidad en materia de agua potable y saneamiento en América Latina y el Caribe

El presente documento describe las políticas públicas en agua potable y saneamiento de 22 países de América Latina y el Caribe: su marco normativo, planes sectoriales y la institucionalidad existente. En muchos países se ha modificado la estructura institucional del sector. Dichas reformas han impulsado la separación institucional de las funciones de rectoría y definición de políticas sectoriales, respecto de las de regulación económica y de prestación de los servicios. Sin embargo, la normativa sectorial de varios países todavía requiere ser actualizada conforme a las nuevas condiciones, camb…

New ECLAC Document Examines Social Gaps in the Context of Indigenous Rights of Mapuche Communities in Ercilla

(5 April 2012) Today, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented the document Desigualdades territoriales y exclusión social del pueblo mapuche en Chile: Situación en la comuna de Ercilla desde un enfoque de derechos (Territorial inequalities and social exclusion of the Mapuche people in Chile: Situation of the Ercilla commune under a human rights-based approach), jointly elaborated with the Mapuche Territorial Alliance (ATM, for its acronym in Spanish). The goal of this study is to generate a socio-demographic and socio-environmental overview of the Mapuche …

Nuevo documento de la CEPAL examina brechas sociales en el contexto de los derechos indígenas de comunidades mapuche de Ercilla

(5 de abril, 2012) La Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) presentó hoy el documento Desigualdades territoriales y exclusión social del pueblo mapuche en Chile: Situación en la comuna de Ercilla desde un enfoque de derechos, elaborado en conjunto con la agrupación Alianza Territorial Mapuche (ATM). El objetivo del estudio es trazar un panorama sociodemográfico y socioambiental de la población mapuche de la comuna de Ercilla (Región de La Araucanía, Chile) y aportar desde el punto de vista metodológico un enfoque histórico que sitúa las brechas que enfrenta esa comuna en e…

Presentación del libro "Desigualdades territoriales y exclusión social del pueblo mapuche en Chile: Situación en la comuna de Ercilla desde un enfoque de derechos"

Avances legislativos en gestión sostenible y descentralizada del agua en América Latina

El presente trabajo revisa los recientes cambios de los marcos regulatorios de los recursos hídricos en algunos de los países de América Latina. El objetivo es identificar y registrar las tendencias que en la región se observan en torno a la formulación de las leyes de aguas promulgadas en los últimos años.…