Belize City, Tues. Oct. 12, 2021– The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing and the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding for the formation of the Program Management Unit of the Resilient Rural Belize Program (RRB), which is aimed at increasing the overall resilience of smallholder farmers against climate change through the adoption of climate resilient practices, the diversification of production and facilitation of access to commercial market chains for the sale of surplus produce.

The initiative will be facilitated via loans and grants which were obtained via agreements between the GoB and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) back in November of 2018. According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the MOU among these partners, as stipulated in the IFAD loan agreement and GCF loan and grant agreement, will “allow the MIDH to partner with RRB for the design and supervision of rural road construction. This collaboration will also ensure the maintenance of the investments to be funded by IFAD under RRB”.

CEO Dr. Osmond Martinez from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment and Mr. Victor Espat, CEO in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, represented their ministries at the MOU signing.

CEO Espat remarked, “The RRB really will provide much needed support to our initiatives at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development in addressing a lot of the road conditions that our farmers are challenged with on a daily basis. So, this really will give us the necessary resources to be able to address these roads that are so badly needed. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing will provide the technical support and the logistical support for this project. So, we envision a successful project, and we are always looking for partners that can collaborate on such initiatives.”