GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands – The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), in collaboration with The University of the West Indies (UWI), will offer four special “Ivan+20” scholarships in 2024 as part of the Ivan+20 initiative: Remembering the Past, Reflecting on the Present, and Visioning for the Future: 20 Years Since Ivan… Resilience, Adaptation, Sustainability in Caribbean SIDS.
This year, CCRIF will offer two “Ivan+20” Scholarships at the undergraduate level and two at the postgraduate level to students from Grenada and the Cayman Islands – the two countries most devastated by Ivan 20 years ago.
These scholarships are in addition to those that CCRIF provides each year to Caribbean nationals. Therefore, in 2024, CCRIF will offer 16 scholarships to Caribbean nationals to pursue postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in areas of study related to disaster risk management at The UWI and other universities in the Caribbean.
Since 2010, CCRIF has provided 175 scholarships totalling US$1.8 million to young persons from the Caribbean to pursue their Bachelor’s degrees at The University of the West Indies or Master’s degrees at universities in the Caribbean, UK and USA. Of the 175 scholarships, 147 have been awarded to students at The UWI.
CCRIF CEO, Isaac Anthony, said:
“CCRIF’s scholarship programmes are helping to build a cadre of young leaders to guide decision making, policy-making and research in the region, on matters related to key issues faced by Caribbean countries: disaster risk management, disaster risk financing and climate change adaptation.”
The scholarships have been an important contribution to regional capacity building by CCRIF and The UWI. At the launch of Ivan+20 in March, Sandrea Maynard, Pro Vice-Chancelor, Global Affairs, indicated:
“The partnership between CCRIF SPC and the University of the West Indies began in 2010 and over the years has developed to support a programme of cooperative activities inclusive of scholarship support.” She stressed the importance of the Ivan+20 initiative in “improving dialogue around disaster risk management, sharing best practices and engaging the youth in shaping a resilient future.”
These scholarships support study in a range of areas. Eligible programmes include natural resource management, climate studies, actuarial science, geography, meteorology, civil engineering, risk management, urban planning, integrated coastal planning, and building and construction management, among many more. We have recently added programmes in energy and environmental physics, and mathematics and modelling processes – programmes which are potential sources of future modellers to develop climate science tools and disaster risk financing instruments such as CCRIF’s parametric insurance products.
Information about these scholarships can be found on the CCRIF website. The deadline for applications for 2024 is June 15, 2024.
The Ivan+20 Initiative is being spearheaded by CCRIF in collaboration with Caribbean governments and regional organizations to collectively reflect on the lessons learned from hurricane Ivan, vision for the sustainable and resilient future we want to create in the next 20 years, and commit to playing our part in moving towards this vision.
Ivan+20 is a year-long initiative that will engage Caribbean governments, regional organizations, academic institutions, civil society organizations, the private sector, youth and children as well as the general public and will include time capsule events, regional resilience dialogues, and special events for youth and children.
