The U.S. Virgin Islands has been through a lot in recent years, and Gov. John deJongh Jr. wants the territory to be recognized for all it’s dealt with.
Earlier this month deJongh sent a detailed letter to Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, outlining the U.S. Virgin Islands’ application for inclusion in the "100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge," according to a news release Saturday from Government House.
The Rockefeller Foundation introduced the challenge to enable 100 cities or municipalities to "address the increasing shocks and stresses of the 21st century." The winning 100 cities will receive both technical assistance and resources for building "urban" resilience over the next three years.
The territory submitted its eligibility registration by the Sept. 23 deadline. The governor’s letter was submitted as the application by the deadline of Oct. 14.
The Rockefeller Foundation defines building resilience as "making people, communities and systems better prepared to withstand catastrophic events – both natural and manmade – and able to bounce back more quickly and emerge stronger from these shocks and stresses."
DeJongh’s letter outlines the many challenges faced by the territory.
"In recent times we gave survived 11 natural disasters, weathered the effects of the 2008 Great Recession, the loss of Economic Development tax incentive beneficiaries, and in the last year have endured a major setback with the closing of our largest employer and taxpayer; but these struggles have only made us stronger as a people and community," deJongh wrote.
The letter describes five resilience-building priorities for the territory:
• Economic and small business development,
• Health
• Energy,
• Public safety including emergency management, and
• Education and technology.
The proposal focuses on economic development, "specifically targeting resiliency through social entrepreneurship and food security."
The submitted application describes both successes and challenges in meeting each priority, but recognizes "our vulnerabilities to a number of different natural and man-made shocks," including hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, climate change, fossil-fuel dependency, closure of major employers, and the impact of national and global economic change.
"The resulting impacts from those challenges include high unemployment rates, lower private sector wages relative to the United States, a significantly high dependence on public sector services and programs," deJongh wrote. "Our ability to respond to all these issues is further complicated by our geographic isolation and the need to execute on four islands."
De Jongh said Saturday that the application is consistent with the administration’s work on the Main Street/downtown revitalization on St. Thomas, recent Cruz Bay improvements on St. John and the work in progress with the town plans for Christiansted and Frederiksted on St. Croix.
“We recognize the importance of developing the central business districts in all of our town areas as we continue to promote economic development opportunities.”
According to the Rockefeller Foundation’s web site, each winning city or municipality must commit to "developing or implementing a city-wide resilience plan as part of their participation in the 100 Resilient Cities Network" and agree to work with the organization to "establish the suite of financial and technical assistance support to develop and implement the resilience plan, become an integrated member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network, and create or expand the role of a chief resilience officer within the municipal government."
The Rockefeller Foundation chose the challenge to celebrate its 100 years of existence, recognizing that a century ago only 10 percent of the world’s population lived in urban settings. By 2050, it is estimated that 75 percent of the world’s population will live in metropolitan areas. The Rockefeller Foundation has allocated $100 million to the challenge.
