In response to the global pandemic and the far-reaching implications for the small open economies of the OCTs, the RESEMBID team spontaneously created the Pandemic Resilience Response Facility. It was successfully launched on 5th April 2020.
In record time, the Facility earmarked flexibly €10 million specifically to fund pandemic Resilience response actions for all the 12 OCTs. It was structured as a purpose-designed, fast-track, flexible response tool for the OCTs to confront the challenges of responding to the pandemic. It incorporates a degree of derogation and delegation granted by the European Union and Expertise France to enable rapid response and agile, simplified processes.
Funds can be used for:
- Strengthening of institutional capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Provision of technical support to primary institutional stakeholders and frontline entities
- Staff training and the deployment of response teams
- Technical assistance for pandemic response strategy and policy development
- Equipment and supplies specifically related to COVID-19 crisis response needs
- Public education and community mobilisation programmes.