CDB President: There is an Urgent Need for Stronger More Adaptive Institutions

By Caribbean Business Report

At a defining moment for the region, President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Mr. Daniel Best, underscored the urgent need to build stronger, more adaptive institutions to help Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) withstand global disruptions and shape their own development future. 

Delivering his inaugural address at the 55th Annual Meeting of the CDB Board of Governors on June 11 in Brasília, President Best shared that “Resilience, in today’s world, means empowering institutions to adapt in real-time to an increasingly uncertain global landscape” The President pointed to recent achievements to strengthen the Bank’s presence in the region, including the launch of the US$58.5 million SuRGE Programme, a just energy transition initiative supported by Canada. 

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There was also a significant increase in the Bank’s Green Climate Fund accreditation from US$50 million to US$250 million unlocking new resources for climate adaptation and resilience. The Bank is also advancing innovations under its Balance Sheet Optimisation Framework to expand lending capacity, and a recent Exposure Exchange Agreement with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) will unlock additional resources for the region’s sustainable development agenda. 

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The President’s address also outlined a bold, forward-looking vision for reshaping the region’s development trajectory. At the core of this vision is what he described as the “Rebirth of the Bank”, a transformation of CDB itself into a more agile, responsive, and catalytic institution capable of tackling the Caribbean’s most urgent challenges.