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Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Resilient Infrastructure Forum (RIF2018), 26-28 June, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic We would like to welcome you to GRV Global’s inaugural Resilient Infrastructure Forum (RIF2018) and look forward to meeting and engaging with you in the Dominican Republic this coming June.

Recent Hurricanes Irma and Maria, of category five, have sadly highlighted the critical need for resilience of small and vulnerable countries, as well as securing robust foundations of urban environments. On top of the volatile natural geography, the impacts of climate change are becoming ever clearer with the increased severity and frequency of extreme events. An estimate made by the Inter/American Development Bank (IDB) suggests that the change in climatic patterns will cost usual business workings more than $22 billion per year by 2050, equalling approximately 10% of the Caribbean’s GDP. There is a clear infrastructure investment gap in the region, with approximately $3 trillion needed over the next 10 years to address the infrastructure demands. The IDB Group has an agenda to close the infrastructure gap, and alongside pension funds, international donors and insurance companies. Over the next five years the IDB financial commitments to resilience will reach $1 billion. We are set to achieve this by creating a public-private sector framework for loan financing mechanisms, that supports additional development expenses in bolstering resilience, and to allocate contingency recourse in times of disaster.

The IDB view this new era of infrastructure investment as the opportunity to build resilience and sustainability into the foundations of city and community development. Projects need to be grounded in risk assessment, sciences, strategic economic analysis and utilise community input. Construction methods must be robust enough to offset predicted risks through building site analysis and engineering. This is where private sector expertise plays a key role within the sectors of housing, water & sanitation, communication infrastructure, energy and transport systems.

Advancements in renewable energy and environmental sustainability are key to address at the foundation stages and ensure long term robustness. The Sustainable Islands Platform has been launched to promote the use of a Blue and Circular Economy for the benefit of 11 Caribbean islands in pursuing sustainable and climate resilient development.

Our aim is to foster development with the private sector, and RIF2018 provides the platform for us to meet with those who share our agenda. We seek regional cooperation and integration of international goods and service providers to bolster our cities and utilities, leverage financing and a long-term policy agenda to ensure development is in a way that will withstand natural disasters and climatic variance. By ensuring the physical and economic resilience of the region, ultimately, we will achieve regional growth and prosperity.

The IDB is supporting the Resilient Infrastructure Forum (RIF2018) to work towards bolstering our cities and the communities of Latin America and the Caribbean who are very vulnerable to catastrophic natural hazards. We would like to use this opportunity to promote the resilience of cities by working with the private sector to mobilise solutions and finance for resilient and sustainable infrastructure development.

We look forward to welcoming you this coming June in Punta Cana.

Juan Pablo Bonilla | Manager Climate Change and Sustainable Development Sector Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)