Kingston, 11 February 2025. CCRIF, through its Small Grants Programme, provided US$25,000 to the Papine High School in Jamaica for their Greenhouse and Hydroponics Project. The grant from CCRIF supported the construction of a greenhouse and hydroponics system at the school. The greenhouse is seen as a boost to the school, serving as a practical learning resource to support students who are studying agriculture as part of the high school curriculum. The greenhouse includes a ventilation system, cooling system, irrigation system, and hydroponics system, as well as planting beds and an electric water distribution system. Crops currently being grown in the greenhouse are lettuce, pak choy, strawberries, basil, cabbage (purple and green) and tomatoes. The school expects to use the produce from the greenhouse to provide nourishing meals to students and to supply the extra produce to business establishments and members of the Papine community. Papine High School and CCRIF hosted a ceremony to formally open the greenhouse in early February.

The Principal of Papine High School, Mr. Leighton Christie, indicated that the greenhouse would also serve as a learning resource and environment for other schools nearby where students are taking agriculture-related courses. Speakers at the opening ceremony included: Hon. Fayval Williams, Member of Parliament for the St. Andrew Eastern Constituency and Minister of Finance and the Public Service; Hon. Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining; Dr. Noel Watson, Chairman of the Papine High School Board; Mrs. Saundra Bailey, Deputy Chairperson of CCRIF SPC; and Mrs. Mariame McIntosh Robinson, Board Member, CCRIF and Chairperson of the CCRIF Technical Assistance Committee.

Mrs. Bailey encouraged the students in attendance to learn more about the digitalization of the agriculture sector and gave them a charge, saying “immerse yourself in ways in which you can contribute to food and nutrition security in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean and further afield, by engaging in all aspects of the agriculture value chain and focusing on innovation in agriculture. I encourage you, as our leaders of tomorrow, to grasp the many opportunities that you can realize by pursuing a career in the agriculture sector or becoming innovative “agripreneurs” (or entrepreneurs focussed on agriculture), advancing Jamaica’s and in indeed the Caribbean’s development prospects.”

Participants had the opportunity to tour the greenhouse.

CCRIF is the Caribbean and Central America Parametric Insurance Facility and Development Insurer. CCRIF provides parametric insurance coverage for tropical cyclones (that is, tropical storms and hurricanes), earthquakes, excess rainfall, and for the fisheries sector and the electric and water utility sectors. Today CCRIF has 30 members – 19 Caribbean governments including the Government of Jamaica, 4 Central American governments 3 electric utility companies, 3 water utility companies and 1 government-owned tourist attraction.

As an insurance company, CCRIF must focus its operations to ensure that it is financially sustainable and can honour payouts when members’ policies are triggered. Since its inception in 2007, CCRIF has made 78 payouts totalling US$390 million. All CCRIF’s payouts are made within 14 days of the event, providing its members with quick liquidity to begin recovery efforts and support persons most impacted by the event or disaster. In 2024, following Hurricane Beryl, CCRIF made 10 payouts totalling US$84.5 million to the governments of Grenada, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Jamaica, and the water and electric utility companies in Grenada as well as the Cayman Islands Turtle Conservation Centre. As a development insurer, CCRIF ensures that it provides its members with the insurance coverage they need at the most affordable price. Profits made by CCRIF go directly into benefitting its members in several ways, including providing discounts to members on their insurance policies and investing in a technical assistance programme which has several components, including the provision of scholarships and internships to Caribbean nationals, and a small grants programme among other areas. CCRIF Vice Chairperson, Mrs. Saundra Bailey, indicated that the Technical Assistance Programme represented, “one of the ways we [CCRIF] have been giving back or paying forward to our members”.

Several students and teachers from Papine High and other schools in Kingston attended the event. Representatives from Government ministries and agencies – including the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority – and members of the business community in Papine also attended the event.

Since 2012, CCRIF has provided grants for 39 projects to NGOs, CBOs, universities, and schools across the Caribbean that have implemented projects that are aligned with the CCRIF mandate. The total investment to date in the Small Grants Programme is US$3.9 million. Under the Small Grants Programme, CCRIF provides grants between US$5,000 and US$25,000 to support projects in areas such as ecosystem rehabilitation, climate change adaptation, food security, disaster risk reduction, access to water, and other areas related to disaster risk management and environmental management.

Register and apply for a small grant today, visit the CCRIF website (https://www.ccrif.org/ccrif-small-grants-programme).

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About CCRIF SPC:

CCRIF SPC is a segregated portfolio company, owned, operated, and registered in the Caribbean. It limits the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes, and excess rainfall events to Caribbean and Central American governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a parametric insurance policy is triggered. It is the world’s first regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest possible pricing. CCRIF offers parametric insurance policies to Caribbean and Central American governments for tropical cyclones, earthquakes, excess rainfall and fisheries and also to electric and water utility companies in the Caribbean. CCRIF was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the Government of Japan. It was capitalized through contributions to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the UK and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments. In 2014, the Central America and Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Program (CACCRIP) MDTF was established by the World Bank to support the development of CCRIF SPC’s new products for current and potential members and facilitate the entry of Central American countries and additional Caribbean countries. The MDTF currently channels funds from various donors, including Canada, through Global Affairs Canada; the United States, through the Department of the Treasury; the European Union, through the European Commission, and Germany, through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and KfW. Additional financing has been provided by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), with resources provided by Mexico; the Government of Ireland; and the European Union through its Regional Resilience Building Facility managed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank. In 2024, CCRIF received funding from CDB, through the Canada-CARICOM Climate Adaptation Fund, to enable seven CCRIF members to increase their coverage and make their national social protection systems more shock responsive.