Barbados & OPEC Fund Launch Vulnerability To Viability Compact

Barbados has taken another major step in the global campaign for climate and financial justice, joining the OPEC Fund for International Development to launch the Vulnerability to Viability Compact at the OPEC Fund Development Forum in Vienna.

The Compact is a joint initiative of the OPEC Fund and the Government of Barbados, as Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and its V20 Finance Ministers. It is designed to help the world’s most climate vulnerable countries access more affordable capital, with longer repayment terms and stronger alignment between national priorities and development finance.

The launch brings together 78 climate vulnerable economies and more than 15 partner development finance institutions. Partner institutions named in the initiative include members of the Arab Coordination Group, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank Group.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the Compact responds directly to the inequities faced by countries that have contributed the least to global emissions while carrying a disproportionate burden from climate shocks.

“Countries lead, and finance institutions align.”Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley

That principle places vulnerable countries at the centre of their own development path. It also calls on finance institutions to organise their support around country-led priorities, rather than fragmented programmes that force small and climate-exposed states to chase resources across disconnected systems.

The V2V Compact focuses on three areas that go to the heart of national resilience and human security: water, education and health. These are the services that protect families, keep children learning, sustain communities and strengthen countries before, during and after crises.

The Prime Minister said the aim is to secure development that is durable, fair and worthy of the people represented by the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20 Finance Ministers.

“This Compact is about securing not just survival, but viability and prosperity. Our countries deserve sustainable pathways to development, and that can only happen by unlocking affordable capital,” Ms. Mottley said.

The Compact combines more affordable and predictable finance with private capital mobilisation and shock-responsive tools. Its purpose is to help countries sustain essential services at scale, improve the flow and affordability of development finance, and reduce fragmentation in the way support reaches climate vulnerable economies.

OPEC Fund President Dr. Abdulhamid AlKhalifa described the Compact as a reflection of “solidarity, partnership and practical action”, and noted that the OPEC Fund has provided US$17 billion in support to countries of the V20 Group over the past five decades.

Work is already continuing to make the Compact operational. A White Paper setting out practical mechanisms for implementation is scheduled to be launched at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok in the middle of October.

The V2V Compact is being advanced as an open platform. Other development finance institutions are being invited to join and align their support behind country-led priorities, expanding access to affordable finance and helping deliver results at scale for climate vulnerable countries.

For Barbados, the launch marks an attempt to build on the principles and work of the Bridgetown Initiative and is a further demonstration of Barbados’ international leadership in the global effort to reform development finance and secure a fairer future for the 1.7 billion people represented by the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20 Finance Ministers. 

The message from Vienna is that vulnerability must not be allowed to define the development prospects of countries on the front line of the climate crisis. With the right finance, the right partnerships and the right respect for country leadership, vulnerability can be turned into viability. (PR/GIS)