The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has launched a USD 23.5 million fund which will provide grants to vulnerable communities for community-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation demonstration projects. The Community Disaster Risk Reduction Trust Fund (CDRRF) was established with joint financing from Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development - formerly known as the Canadian International Development Agency - and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development. Grants will range in value from USD 400,000 to USD 650,000. CDB's Project Manager for the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, Mr. Leslie Walling, notes that the CDRRF has been designed to provide direct and responsive support for projects that address the specific, local disaster risk, climate change circumstances and risk reduction needs of each target community. "Although extreme natural hazard events such as hurricanes, storms, droughts and climate change effects such as sea-level rise may affect an entire country, in the final analysis, all disasters are local phenomena. This means that disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation must, by definition, be a fundamentally local affair," Walling said. By providing vulnerable communities with direct access to grant opportunities, the CDRRF aims to permanently increase the level of community ownership, oversight, and involvement in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities across the Region. Direct access will also help to increase the speed of delivery of desired benefits, cut transaction costs and achieve better targeting of community-level priorities. The CDRRF, which will be available in all of CDB's Borrowing Member Countries except Haiti, will also fund the development of a methodology, and guidelines for mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation considerations in the national Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) processes of the participating countries. CAPTION: The Community Disaster Risk Reduction Trust Fund will provide grants to vulnerable communities for community-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation demonstration projects.