The India-UN Development Partnership Fund has provided five ventilators to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, enabling the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Environment to equip a specially designed infectious disease and isolation centre developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is one part of an India-UN Partnership Fund US$1 million project to strengthen national health capacities and reduce the negative socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in Antigua and Barbuda.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Multi-Country Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean is implementing the project in close consultation and collaboration with relevant national authorities, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Immigration, and the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda.
The India-UN Development Partnership Fund project will also provide support to assess the socio-economic and human development impacts of the crisis, in particular on women, using short-term measures designed to mitigate the immediate impact of the crisis and improve the ability of women to recover in the medium to long term. This support is deemed crucial as the global pandemic threatens to profoundly deepen inequalities and undo progress on sustainable development and humanitarian response, more broadly. Unemployment is forecast to increase with the fall-off in tourism and critically, women are overrepresented in tourism sector employment, accounting for 60 percent of the labour force in that sector.
Support will also be provided to e-commerce services developed for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and other businesses in agriculture, tourism and the “gig” economy and integrated with relevant secondary services.
About the Fund
Established in 2017, the India-UN Development Partnership Fund is a dedicated facility within the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation, supported and led by the Government of the Republic of India, managed by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), and implemented in collaboration with the United Nations system.
The Fund supports Southern-owned and led, demand-driven, and transformational sustainable development projects across the developing world, with a focus on least developed countries and small island developing states. United Nations agencies implement the Funds projects in close collaboration with partnering governments. For information available here.