The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) - in collaboration with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) - will host the Caribbean Regional Meeting on “Climate Resilient Urban Development” in Saint Lucia from 9 to 11 September 2026. 

The joint meeting will gather around 50 delegates representing Caribbean member countries with sub-national systems of government: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Key participants are local and central government representatives, local government associations, built environment professionals, technical experts, and regional development partners.

Strengthening urban resilience, governance, and municipal finance

Across the Caribbean, local authorities operate on the front line of advancing climate risks, extreme weather events and changing settlement patterns. Throughout the three-day programme, delegates will exchange best practice, review progress and deliberate on strategic priorities for sustainable local development:

• Project review and strategy: Reviewing progress under the Multi-Country Climate Resilient Development Initiative with target countries (Dominica, St. Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago) and developing pipeline proposals.
• Local leadership and climate resilience: Exchanging good practice on local leadership in the face of global challenges, disaster risk reduction, sustainable urbanisation, and local economic development. Discussions will also highlight progress towards developing climate-resilient National Urban Policies (cr-NUP) and examine pressing environmental pressures across the region, including the local management of Sargassum impacts.
• Urban and local government finance: Addressing municipal and urban finance, urban asset management and collaborative investment frameworks with development partners active in the Caribbean.

Shaping the Commonwealth agenda

Outcomes and recommendations emerging from the St. Lucia regional meeting will ensure that Caribbean local government perspectives directly inform high-level policy preparations for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place in Antigua and Barbuda in November 2026, as well as the next Commonwealth Local Government Conference in 2027. They will also shape CLGF’s ongoing technical assistance across the region.

This event is jointly supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF)-funded “Multi-Country Climate Resilient Development Initiative” and CLGF’s European Union-funded programme “Empowering Local Authorities in partner countries for enhanced governance and more effective development outcomes” (2025–2027), which focuses on strengthening local governance amidst ongoing poly-crises.