The Dominican Republic (DR) shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. In the Caribbean region, it is the second largest nation, after Cuba, in land area and population (about 10 million). After the arrival of Europeans in the New World, the country was under Spanish colonial rule and later under Haitian domination until it finally achieved independence in 1865. Following a lengthy period of government under a series of strongmen and dictators, the country in recent history has become a representative democracy.
The DR is considered a middle-income country. It has the largest economy in the Central American and Caribbean region and has developed good telecommunications and transportation systems that support the economy. Key sectors include agriculture, mining, and government services. The country’s natural beauty has made it a magnet for tourists, and it is the most visited destination in the Caribbean.
Problems plaguing the DR include unemployment, income inequality, government corruption, and energy shortages. The country also has become a transshipment point for drugs bound from South America to the United States and Europe, with the crime that accompanies drug-related activity.
Geographically, the Dominican Republic has been declared one of the ten countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change, largely because of its location in the hurricane belt. Storms during the hurricane season cause flooding, soil erosion, and landslides. Coastal cities—and the tourism industry—face threats from a rise in sea level and the continued loss of coral reefs, mangroves, and wetlands that protect the beaches from storm surges.
Droughts in periods of intense heat result in water shortages. Future climate changes are expected to exacerbate these trends, with storms and downpours becoming more and more intense, increasing the risks from riverine flooding.
In cities, the climate impacts of tropical storms, intense precipitation, extreme heat, and drought stress municipal services and exacerbate problems with existing infrastructure. Municipal institutions have been unable to garner the resources to address these vulnerabilities, due to inadequate legal and budgetary authority and a number of other factors. They lack technical capacity in critical areas, and high turnover of municipal staff makes it difficult to retain institutional knowledge. Land use planning processes do not exist for most municipalities, and corruption and crime further challenge the ability of municipalities to develop and carry out programs.
Because the DR is so vulnerable, the U.S. development strategy for the country focuses on supporting efforts of the government and people to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change by improving access to climate information, incorporating that information into governance systems and processes, and translating those processes into actions that address the impacts of climate change.
Planning for Climate Adaptation Program
As a step in carrying out this strategy, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) formalized an Urban Resilience Climate Change project, known by its Spanish name, Ciudades Líderes en Iniciativas y Metas de Adaptación and awarded ICMA the Planning for Climate Adaptation Program. Under the award, ICMA is helping build the capacity of DR municipalities so that they can better integrate climate change adaptation into municipal planning processes and scale up climate resilience land use planning best practices.
Transparency and Citizen Action Program Workshop
In 2008, ICMA facilitated two workshops sponsored by the USAID Transparency and Citizen Action Program on co-participation strategies for local economic development in the Dominican Republic. The workshops gave a platform to analyze the new Law 176-07, enacted in August 2007, which presented challenges for municipal decentralization. Participants included representatives from civil society, the central government, municipalities, and private companies, which resulted in timely discussions about the challenge of organizing a platform of shared responsibility in order to effectively apply Law 176-07.
The first workshop, in Santo Domingo, featured presentations on international experiences in local economic development, with a focus on partnerships. Representatives from Bolivia spoke about the Bolivian decentralization process and the participatory municipal management system, and presenters from Mexico discussed the lessons learned from the state-level Economic Development Council in Sinaloa, Mexico, in promoting economic development and good governance. The second workshop, in Santiago de los Caballeros, offered roundtable and panel discussions on civil society/public sector partnerships and private/public partnerships.
Energy Efficiency in the Water Sector
In 2003, the Dominican Republic was a participant in a five-day training course, “Cities Matter: Energy Efficiency in the Water Sector,” provided by ICMA under the Sustainable Urban Management (SUM) project for six Latin American/Caribbean countries. The course sought to impart an understanding of the role of energy and energy efficiency in the local context, raise awareness and competence in the application of energy-efficient techniques, establish a forum for discussion and dissemination of appropriate tools and best practices, and establish new networks of local practitioners to encourage ongoing dissemination and sharing.
