Belize Meets with International Financiers to Discuss Access to Climate Finance

A meeting took place today between officials from the Government of Belize and international financial institutions to discuss access to climate finance. Minister of State in Finance, Christopher Coye, headed an official delegation from Belize at the Caribbean Ministerial Meeting at the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.)/World Bank Annual Meetings in Marrakech, Morocco. Coye spoke about strengthening fiscal outcomes with multilateral technical capacity-building support and advocated for broadened access to timely, affordable, climate resiliency-building and crisis financing. The delegation also held bilateral meetings with officials of the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the I.M.F. One of the delegation’s main agenda items will be to advocate for Belize’s eligibility for International Development Association (IDA) grants and highly concessionary financing.

This is to support climate resiliency building, contingency-based crisis financing for recovery from extreme climate events, as well as long-term economic resiliency building. In December, the delegation will hold bilateral meetings with numerous countries, including the U.S.A., United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, among others to consider Belize’s application for eligibility.  The I.D.A.’s concessionary financing has a zero rate of interest or very low interest charge, with terms of repayment being 30 to 40 years. Of note is that more than half of the I.D.A. countries receive all or half of their I.D.A. resources on grant terms, which carry no repayment at all.