 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Novel bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Two major events aimed at raising public awareness on climate change have ended on a progressive note. Youth leader Chelsea Foster is recognized as a point of light by Queen Elizabeth II. The Caribbean's leading tertiary education institution celebrates 70 years of excellence and a new rotary satellite club is raring to go. Two major events held at the Harbour Club in St. Lucia to raise public awareness on the impacts of climate change have ended on a progressive note. Organized by the OECS Commission along with the European Union and the Department of Sustainable Development of the Government of St. Lucia, the events, an exhibition and a forum on the financing of efforts to combat climate change built new partnerships and catalyzed investments. Here's Anisia Antoine. St. Lucia hosted the first ever forum of the Caribbean Nationally Determined Contributions Finance Initiatives, NDCFI. Under the Paris Climate Agreement adopted at COP21, countries all agreed to contribute to the global climate effort. Their respective commitments were expressed in nationally determined contributions, NDCs. These NDCs contain emissions, reductions and adaptation goals and targets. Many Caribbean NDCs focus on areas such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, water, climate smart agriculture and critical infrastructure. The NDCFI is described as a mechanism and a process geared towards assisting, participating countries to mobilize finance and resources in an effort to build resilience, mitigation and adaptation. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shasne was not able to be present due to him attending the World Bank Group IMF meetings in Indonesia. Minister for Sustainable Development, the Honourable Dr. Gail Rigabat read a speech on his behalf. More and more we realize that the playing field remains uneven and we must continue to compete within the unfair and sometimes shifting conditions that seem endless. The objectives of the Finance Initiative tell us that we must continue to devise strategies and strategic means of moving from mere concepts to meaningful actions on the ground. Actions that will signal to our developing partners and supporters that we know where we are headed. We must continue to foster the required enabling environment both through policy and legislative measures. This process may sometimes appear slow but we remain committed to ensuring that gains are achieved in a strategic and collaborative manner. The forum is being convened under the theme Caribbean Climate Leadership Accelerating NDC Implementation. Implementation of Caribbean NDCs will require significant investment. While Caribbean governments have taken meaningful steps towards fulfilling their NDC targets, success will be best achieved through robust support and effective partnerships with development partners, regional governments and the private sector. The NDC Finance Initiative NDCFI is intended to catalyze regional NDC implementation by beginning to unlock the investment opportunities in the various sectors while supporting the transition to more resilient economies. The NDCFI was launched in September 2017 and is initially envisioned as a three-year process. One of the critical milestones is the first NDC investment forum. Director-General of the OECS, H.E. Dr. Didicas-Jules highlighted the importance of taking the necessary steps to confront climate change. This is not about piecemeal initiatives, you know, a single electric car on the road and we make a big hullabaloo about it or make change in a few light bulbs here from incandescent to lead. It requires that we see the opportunities for making the transformational shift from where we are to a different type of future that carries cross-functional opportunities in it. So, you know, moving to electric transportation for example is not just changing from diesel and fossil to renewable energy forms of transportation. Transport is so critical to our economies that it actually lays the basis for a different type of economy altogether, one that is more within our power. Objectives include generating a roadmap for NDC implementation and investment until 2020, identifying and validating key NDC investment sectors and sub-sectors, addressing implementation barriers and processes for updating NDCs, linking them with national needs for mitigation, adaptation and the co-benefits and establishing a process for project pipeline development and matchmaking with potential investors. According to Minister for Sustainability, the Honourable Dr. Gail Rigabet, it is also important to identify and engage development partners to support NDC implementation and to establish a network of sector experts, development partners, potential investors and other stakeholders with a view to build new partnership and catalyzing investments. Your presence tells me and is indeed symbolic of the continued commitment that is needed to ensure that we remain resolute in preserving the state of our environment. I trust that yesterday's deliberations were fruitful and that we are now in a better position where our needs and priorities are more clearly articulated. I trust that we have also strengthened our existing partnerships and we welcome new partners as we undertake this journey to secure additional financing to implement our NDCs. The forum will bring together ministers and technical experts from OACS and other Caribbean community caracom member states and representatives of regional institutions, development partner organizations and the regional and international private sectors. Together, they will work to address the investment and related challenges to NDC implementation and to decide on concrete action going forward. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Andrews reporting. Many countries, especially small island developing states, continue to struggle to obtain financing to undertake projects aimed at building resilience, adaptation and mitigation in the face of climate change. It is hoped that the nationally determined contributions finance initiative would mobilize the private sector in the transformation of resilient low carbon economies in the Caribbean region. At the very first NDCFI forum, sponsors reaffirm their support to the cause. I represent the Taiwanese to join you, not only as one of the sponsors to this forum but also as a partner in sustainable development and for potential investment opportunities. As some of you might have known, Taiwan, like all the Caribbean countries represented here, is an island state vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As recent record breaking rainfalls can testify, therefore Taiwan has lots of experience, technologies and best practice to share in climate change mitigation, adaptation as well as natural disaster prevention and management. And Taiwan's track record in this region is quite visible. For example, the highway solar lights projects and the airport solar power project in St. Kitts and Nevis and also the ongoing banana production improvement project in St. Lucia. What's more, we are interested in bringing the Taiwanese business community to join you as partners in your efforts to build resilient and low carbon economies. The Federal Republic of Germany has also thrown its support behind the initiative. The more we move from preparing the NDC implementation to actual NDC implementation, the more important is its finance topic. Mobilizing finance, including private sector involvement, really is one of the key building blocks for turning climate targets into reality. This is why the Caribbean Regional NDC Finance Initiative under the umbrella of the NDC partnership addresses a core need by catalyzing investment in climate resilient and low carbon infrastructures or as it was said yesterday to turn NDCs into viable projects. Germany is pleased to have been able to support development of the initiative, for instance by the GIZ working in St. Lucia since 2017 on the finance initiative. Thus, it gives me a great pleasure to officially announce today that German cooperation will assist the implementation of this initiative with a further financing of 500,000 euros. The forum brought together ministers and technical experts from the OECS and other Caricam member states and representatives of regional institutions, development partner organizations, and the regional and international private sectors. Together, they will work to address the investment and related challenges to NDC implementation and to decide on concrete action going forward. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has recognized Chelsea Foster, representing St. Lucia as the 73rd Commonwealth Point of Light in honour of her exceptional voluntary service, leading mentoring programs for disadvantaged girls. Chelsea Foster is the founder of Girls of a Feather, a non-profit organization that aims to empower young women and girls. Since launching the organization in 2013 when she was just 17 years old, she has encouraged girls aged 10 to 18 to discuss the issues that affect them most, including gender-based violence, economic empowerment, and reproductive health. During the nine-month placements on her flagship Girls with Goals mentoring program, the girls are paired up with trained mentors who aim to boost their self-esteem. The St. Lucia government recently named Chelsea Youth of the Year for her work supporting disadvantaged girls. This is Nation Beat when we come back the University of the West Indies celebrates 70 years. I think everything we should go on the boat for my birthday. Last night was fabulous. I had so much fun. I think you and the girls should really join us. Probably we could tell the girls when they come later. Really? Is it free? No, it's not, but don't worry about that. It's my birthday. I'll take care of it. Hey, hey, Nadesh! Look who it is! Hi! Happy that you could join us. I'm good for you. I'm fine. I'm happy that you could join us. We're just talking about the birthday celebration next week. So, what are we doing for the birthdays? We're just thinking about going on the boat the night before. We're going on the boat because some of us will have our fun, you know what I mean? So, we're going on the boat. So, what do you think? I think she will. I think she will. Yes, we're going on the boat. Wee! So, which one are you planning on going on the boat tonight? Well, you know, like to be spontaneous. So, I always walk with my boy. Yeah, me too. Milly, I really agree with you because lately our numbers for SPIs have been increasing and this is the best way to go. We should, as women, walk with our condoms. We should protect ourselves. I agree. So, you don't have to depend on the men. So, I think these are good practices. Walk with your condom and make sure that you use it. Very good. Milly, very good. So, what do you all say to save sex? Save sex is the best thing. But what you will again is what's lost. Welcome back. The University of the West Indies, UEE, is celebrating 70 years of its existence as the leading tertiary institution in the Caribbean. Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles is on island and met with the press ahead of the university's graduation to be held October 13. Jack Hingson Compton reports. Aside from the 70th anniversary of the University of the West Indies, it also celebrates its top 5% ranking in the world. The top position comes from the Times Higher Education, or THE, World University rankings. The Times ranked the university at 591 out of the top 1,258 universities in the world, making it the only Caribbean institution on the list. Pro Vice Chancellor and the principal of the UEE Open Campus credits the university's recent success with the exemplary leadership of Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles. In 2015, when Vice Chancellor Beckles took over the reins as Vice Chancellor, he declared the intention to radically globalize the university and to prepare it for regional and global comparisons. Vice Chancellor Beckles, in establishing an Office of Global Affairs and giving a remit to a designed Office of Planning, recognized the need for the UWI to be competitive internationally within a global sector, or as they say in Jamaica, you have to dance at home, but you also have to dance abroad. He presented a vision to have the UWI recognized within the top 5% of the best universities in the world, which proudly has now been realized. Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, says the university and the region's intellectual achievements should be highlighted. We know that in every academic discipline, in every academic discipline, this university has produced global heavyweights over the last 70 years. There are UWI heavyweights in every discipline. Some of them have won Nobel laureates and that sets us apart. Many of them have won all kinds of scholastic achievements, all kind of remarkable recognitions. We all get honorary doctorates from other universities. There are many ways in which we can measure all of that. There is no UN, there is no United Nations body of any substance that we are not either sitting on it, advising it, speaking for it. There is no body in the Commonwealth that we are not doing the research on the membership board, advising, governing. According to the Vice Chancellor, UWI's excellence has been a long-kept secret for far too long. From the Government Information Service, I am Jackingston Compton. This week, nations of the world join hands in recognition of the International Day for Disaster Reduction. The International Day for Disaster Reduction celebrates the approach of global communities towards reducing the exposure to disasters. Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project, the leading communications officer, Lucius Dockstree, says the day is also used to raise awareness of the risks. What we'll ask to understand is in the international community, for example, there was $306 billion a cost to natural disasters in 2017, which was double the cost for 2016. What I'm saying is there is a humongous cost in terms of disasters. Now, with the international community, because of the size of those countries in the developed countries, they are able to recover a lot quicker in terms of infrastructure, because the finance is also available for that sort of response and recovery. In small island states of the OECS and St. Lucia, for example, it takes a lot longer. The cost of Hurricane or the Christmas Eve trough and Tomas combined was a little over one billion dollars. The theme for this year continues as part of the Sendai 7 campaign. The campaign encompasses seven targets. This year's framework focuses on reducing disaster economic losses in relation to global GDP by the year 2030. St. Lucia's Premier Disaster Reduction Project is a DVRP. It is all encapsulating in its stature in that it focuses not only on the hard engineering, which is what hits the faces of most people. So we see bridge being built and hospitals being rehabilitated and people see these things. But apart from that, the DVRP also focuses on a lot of softworks. So for example, national spatial data infrastructure to collect information, disseminate information to be able to pinpoint where disasters happen. Early warning systems. So when a system is approaching to be able to sound that alarm so people can move quickly from where there are two safe spots, you have sea level monitoring, which is critical in terms of disaster risk reduction. You have, for example, coral reef rehabilitation, seagrass bed, rejuvenation. All of these are softworks that lends itself to building the country's ability to reducing disasters. The International Day for Disaster Reduction is held annually on October 13. The Rotary Club of St. Lucia has provided another avenue for the nation's youth to become involved in community service. The Rotary Satellite Club of St. Lucia Sunset, a subsidiary of Rotary International, has been officially established. The Satellite Club, like Rotary, brings together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. Soraya Warnagustav is the president of the Rotary Satellite Club of St. Lucia Sunset. Rotary is not a charitable organization, yet its activities exemplify the charity and sacrifices that one should expect from people who believe that they have a responsibility to help others. Rotary is not a religious organization, but it is built on those eternal principles that have served as the normal moral compass for people throughout the ages. 23 new members have formally been inducted into the Rotary Satellite Club of St. Lucia. It is our duty to bring in new members and to grow our membership so that we may not only expand our usefulness and influence as a club, but also to be able to extend the spirit of Rotary throughout our communities. The Rotary Satellite Club of St. Lucia Sunset will allow Rotary St. Lucia to expand its impact through a younger demographic, and we are truly grateful for this group of Rotary alumni who never gave up their passion for Rotary and seized this opportunity, just as A. G. Lyle said, to once again advocate for service above self and become Rotarians. Zamala Joseph has been elected the new chairperson of the Rotary Satellite Club of St. Lucia Sunset. I want us to understand as Rotarians, new Rotarians, that while in Rotaract we serve through fellowship, in Rotary we are called to serve through our vocations or our professions. Therefore, Rotarians, I know it was a bit of a hurdle to get you to do classifications, but it's very important. It's important that we embrace and it's important that we uphold the ideals of Rotary, the objects of Rotary in everything that we do. The Rotary Club has given more than 50 years of service to St. Lucia. From the Government Information Service, I am Manita Antoine reporting. That's NationBit. Join us next time as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Norvel.