July 18, 2011 No. 25/11-BD CDB APPROVES GRANT TO HAITI TO HELP WITH CCRIF PREMIUMS The Government of Haiti is to receive assistance from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to meet part of its premium payments to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Fund (CCRIF) for the period June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012. A grant equivalent to USD550,000 has been approved by the Bank's Board of Directors for this purpose. CCRIF is the world's first regional insurance fund. It is a parametric insurance facility, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean for the Region's governments. It insures government risk, and is designed to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes to Caribbean governments, by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a policy is triggered. Against a background of large declines in government revenue, and the current social, economic and fiscal challenges facing the Haitian people, CDB and the Government of Canada have once again come to the assistance of the Government of Haiti in meeting the cost of its premiums to CCRIF.