The Caribbean region has great potential for economic growth and development. Its tourism sector is highly active, with the Caribbean ranked as one of the top tourist destinations in the world. However, the region is extremely vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. According to the United Nations, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season included 18 storms, 11 hurricanes, and five major hurricanes (classified as Category 3 or higher), causing widespread destruction to communities, infrastructure and the economy.
The World Bank (WB) plays a crucial role building fiscal and financial resilience, supporting the region’s development towards enhancing resilience and strengthening disaster risk management through various development projects. Since 2018, all projects that receive WB loans are obligated to implement the WB’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) assessment as a commitment to sustainable development.
In 2019, Commonwealth Alumnus Dr Chanelle Fingal-Robinson joined the WB as a Social Development Consultant. Here, she ensures that WB funded development projects across the Caribbean adhere to the social standards of the ESF to support projects addressing climate change and disaster resilience, ecological conservation, digitalisation, and education.
Supporting WB clients to follow ESF standards
WB adopted the Environmental and Social Framework as a commitment to sustainable development. ESF includes a set of environmental and social standards enabling borrowers to better manage environmental and social risks in WB funded projects and to improve development outcomes.
As a WB Social Development Specialist, Dr Fingal-Robinson supports borrowers, mostly government and non-government entities, across the Caribbean to comply to ESF standards during project implementation. Through her support, clients ensure projects follow the set standards of ESF’s 10 focal areas: human rights, labour, community health & safety, provisions for people with disabilities, indigenous people, land acquisition, and resource efficiency & pollution prevention. These are aligned with international best practices on biodiversity protection and conservation. The ESF helps ensure clients assess all risks and project impact, and operate in a sustainably, environmentally, and socially responsible manner while implementing projects.
Certain infrastructure development projects can potentially displace people from their homes and lands. As such, the ESF includes provision of compensation to the people affected. Dr Fingal-Robinson has identified gaps between country laws and ESF standards in paying resettlement offers. Through reviews, she pushes for timely payments to be made to those displaced, to avoid any discomforts to people and the community.
“I am responsible for the people aspect of the development projects. If there are any resettlement to be carried out, I ensure that people are duly compensated. My role also entails to ensure that vulnerable groups like children, women, homeless, and LGBTQ identified within the project area are consulted and are able to benefit from the project.”
Since 2023, Dr Fingal-Robinson has supported the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project in Dominica. The 2015 Tropical Storm Erika and 2017 Hurricane Maria, drew attention to the critical need to rehabilitate and improve the East Coast Roads to mitigate future climate risks. One of the project’s objectives was to improve access to the eastern region, home to the Indigenous Kalingo people, which is lagging behind economic development.
Although the indigenous community are the main users of the local road infrastructure, the development project posed risks to their communities, and in some cases, of economic displacement. Dr Fingal-Robinson has played an important role in ensuring that the client mitigate these risks in accordance with their environmental and social management plans, including, but not limited to the compensation for economic losses.
“In the road development project in Dominica, there were some community people that were outstanding resettlement payments, and I insisted that they get paid immediately. You want the community to be in a better position before you start displacing them.”
Developing skills in social development
Dr Fingal-Robinson credits her Commonwealth Split-site Scholarship and 6 months of PhD study at The University of Reading, in enabling her to gain experience and skills to kickstart her career in sustainable social development.
Her PhD thesis explored globalisation, fairtrade and the St Lucian banana industry. She reminisces that the guidance received from her UK supervisor was phenomenal in broadening her research topic to a global fairtrade perspective.
Following her PhD, she worked as a Fairtrade Consultant for the Jamaica Cocoa Farmers’ Association where she implemented her research findings in shaping fairtrade policy and practices for the cocoa industry.
Continuing her advocacy, she has served as Secretary of the Jamaican Women in Coffee organisation, the local arm of the International Women in Coffee Alliance. Coffee in Jamaica is not fairtrade certified, however, through her expertise in fairtrade policies and practices, Dr Fingal-Robinson encouraged farmers to use natural fertilisers and adopt natural processes to grow coffee.
“The aim of our work is to empower female coffee farmers and to improve the sustainability of their farming practices.”
Challenges faced by female farmers include navigating the coffee supply chain, reduced coffee yield due to climate change and limited development of best practices in coffee yield storage. She supports farmers in addressing these challenges through bespoke training on sustainable coffee growing practices.
“As the Executive Committee, I have collaborated with the other members to plan and execute training sessions for female coffee farmers in the Jamaican Blue Mountains. These sessions are aimed at helping these women adopt more sustainable farming practices as well as better manage the business of farming. At the end of the trainings, all the women in attendance have reported learning something new that they will apply on their farms.”
Adhering to best practices in supporting fishermen’s livelihoods
Prior to her role with the WB, Dr Fingal-Robinson was the Social Impact Specialist at the Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) in Jamaica. Here, she designed and headed KFTL’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) vision and action plan and conducted assessments to review the company’s projects, adhering to the Environmental and Social (E&S) Standards set by its then loan lenders, the IDB Invest and other B Lenders.
To comply to the E&S standards, she successfully led the social management of KFTL’s 2017 capital dredging campaign to address the livelihood concerns of fishers. Using soft skills such as negotiation, gained during her Commonwealth Scholarship, Dr Fingal-Robinson liaised with over 4,000 fishers to understand their disputes and discuss best practices to support their livelihoods. As a result, in 2017, over 200 fishers applied for livelihood support. It was the first time that a capital dredging campaign included livelihood support for fishers.
“I’m most proud of my work at KFTL because I had to manage the expectations of over 4,000 fisherfolk in the Kingston Harbour. The initiative that I spearheaded was used as a best practice case study at the IDB Invest’s Sustainability week 2 years in a row. The fishers have also indicated that any other dredging that occurs in the harbour has to at least meet the same standards that I helped KFTL set in their dredging campaign.”
Reflecting on skills gained during the Scholarship
Dr Fingal-Robinson credits her Commonwealth Split-site Scholarship in expanding her global understanding of social development issues. During her time in the UK, she networked with peers from across the world and had access to learning resources which she otherwise would not have received. She also developed analytical and academic writing skills, useful in conducting research and completing technical reports for multiple consulting assignments.
Dr Fingal-Robinson has since contributed her expertise as a social development specialist to conduct gender analysis and ESF assessments across the Caribbean for international organisations, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
“Prior to the Scholarship, I thought more in silos, but now I try more often than not to understand a more fulsome picture of an issue, before developing an opinion. This was also as a result of the supervision I received when I was on the scholarship in the UK.”
Dr Chanelle Fingal-Robinson is a 2008 Commonwealth Split-site Scholar from Trinidad and Tobago. She completed her PhD at the University of Reading and the University of West Indies, Mona.
