EASTERN CARIBBEAN

UNCDF has been present in the Eastern Caribbean since 2022. There have been strong advances to support digital financial inclusion across many Eastern Caribbean Islands.

However, many stakeholders across the Eastern Caribbean are actively identifying constraints that slow digital financial inclusion, particularly around areas of data collection, digital payments, leveraging technology for financial inclusion, digital financial literacy, consumer protection, among other topic areas.

Against this backdrop, the UNCDF Eastern Caribbean office works with policymakers and private sector players to tackle such challenges and improve digital financial inclusion across the Eastern Caribbean and accelerate growth in the digital economy.

Leveraging Digital Finance for Financial Resilience

In February 2022, UNCDF launched its Digital Finance for Resilience Programme for the Eastern Caribbean, a four-year initiative designed by the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), funded by the EU, and implemented by UNCDF.

This Programme is implemented across three regions (Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific) and within the Caribbean provides support to policymakers and private sector players across Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union Island states.

The programme aims to support and accelerate the deployment of digital finance solutions that reduce poverty and deepen financial inclusion, accelerate economic recovery from COVID-19 and increase resilience.

The programme operates through three pillars:

• Technical assistance and policy advisory for financial inclusion
• Blended finance to scale innovations in digital finance for inclusion
• Digital finance and financial inclusion events and knowledge exchange