WHAT IS CIF?

Established in 2012, the Caribbean Investment Facility (CIF) is one of the European Union’s regional blending facilities, aimed at contributing to economic development and growth, regional integration, poverty reduction and environmental protection through the mobilization of resources for strategic economic infrastructure projects and for support to the private sector.

CIF acts as a catalyst to mobilize funding for development projects by combining EU grants with financial resources from European and regional financial institutions, governments and the private sector.

Currently, CIF is financing projects in key sectors that are essential for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as renewable energy, water and wastewater systems, sustainable transport, environment, information and communication technology, health, education and other social services, and support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

CIF has three main interconnected and mutually reinforcing strategic objectives:

• Improving social access and quality of infrastructure in the Caribbean countries.
• Increasing environmental protection, supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation and prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.
• Promoting equitable and sustainable socio-economic development through improvements to social service infrastructure and support to SMEs.

HOW DOES CIF WORK?

CIF sets up partnerships, pooling grants and other resources from the EU and using them to leverage loans from multilateral and bilateral European finance institutions (such as EIB and AFD) as well as from regional and multilateral development banks (such as CDB, IDB, WB, DFID, JICA). These resources are often pooled together with contributions from partner countries and beneficiary institutions in the Caribbean.

The Commission and the Member States decide whether to approve funding, following criteria based on development impact (SDGs), additionality (added value and leverage) and innovation.

Implementation of both the CIF grant component and the credit component is managed by the corresponding European or regional development bank. Project follow- up is assured by the European Delegation (EUD) in each country, supported by CIF headquarters.

Click here to download the Guidelines on EU blending operations
 

CIF FINANCING MODALITIES

CIF offers:

• Technical assistance, tailor-made to meet specific project needs during both design and implementation phases. This helps to ensure the quality, efficiency and long-term sustainability of projects.
• Investment grants that can finance specific components of a project or a proportion of total project cost, thereby reducing the amount of partner country debt.
• Financial instruments such as equity and guarantees, which can mobilize additional funding from other parties.

The program allows the European Union to engage in projects that would have been outside the scope of conventional development cooperation instruments, in a region where an increasing number of countries are in need of different approaches, instruments and forms of tailored support for investment.

BENEFICIARY COUNTRIES

CIF supports investments in the 13 Caribbean countries, signatories of ACP-EU Partnership Agreement. CIF can also support regional operations covering two or more of the above countries.

PARTNERS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CARIBBEAN

CIF works in partnership with:

• European and regional finance institutions: currently the portfolio is managed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the French Agency for Development (AFD), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). However, other EU bilateral financial institutions are eligible.
• Other multilateral development banks and donors: the World Bank (WB), the Department for International Development (DFID) and Japan International Cooperation Agency are the main implementing partners and/or co-financiers.
• Other actors: national governments, the private sector, and national development banks can co-finance or implement specific investments.