GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands – Since 2015, when it launched its Regional Internship Programme, CCRIF has been providing internships to recent university graduates and postgraduate students from the Caribbean, who have earned degrees in areas such as disaster risk management, environmental management, geography, civil engineering, or climate studies, at regional and national organizations. This year, CCRIF has placed 27 interns in ten organizations across the Caribbean. CCRIF has invested over US$530,000 to support 198 internships over the last nine years.
Host organizations for CCRIF interns this year include among others the Anguilla Department of Disaster Management, Office of Disaster Preparedness Trinidad and Tobago (ODPM TT), Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA), Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), CCRIF, and various departments and centres from The University of the West Indies.
Since 2023, CCRIF has been collaborating with non-governmental organizations that CCRIF has worked with under its Small Grants Programme. Two NGOs from Trinidad and Tobago – Carbon Zero Institute of Trinidad and Tobago (CZITT) and IAMovement –are part of the Internship Programme this year. This is the 2nd year that IAMovement has been participating in the programme. Some 24 organizations (and 12 centres and departments at The UWI) have participated in the programme over the years.
Interns are placed in host organizations for ten weeks between July and December each year. CCRIF provides these interns with monthly stipends as well as accommodation, travel insurance and return airfare to those who travel to host organizations outside their home country.
Today, CCRIF’s regional internship programme is one of the largest internship programmes in the Caribbean for areas related to disaster risk management, meteorology, environmental sustainability, and climate change adaptation.
CCRIF’s internships are designed as a core component of students’ academic and professional journeys, acting as the intersection of the two. Through internships, students become actively engaged with the concepts and theories that they learn in the classroom, which they can put into practice in a professional setting.
All CCRIF interns, along with several other young persons in the region, also benefit from a CCRIF-UWI online summer course in disaster risk financing, for which they receive an official certificate and two continuing education units.
The 2024 interns are working on a range of projects including among others:
- Conducting research and development activities to support the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Severe Weather Forecasting Programme for the Eastern Caribbean – at the Caribbean Meteorological Organization.
- Supporting the development of an e-learning platform focused on climate-smart agriculture to provide resources for farmers and other stakeholders – at CZITT.
- Evaluating infrastructure to ensure that urban planning and development contribute to the overall resilience of cities against climate-related hazards – at ODPM TT.
- Designing and implementing ‘Automated Public Weather Forecast Templates’ to reduce the time required to produce accurate and informative forecasts – at TCIAA.
- Supporting the update of the Special Needs Database and Implementation Plan and assisting with the execution of plans for the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction – at TEMA.
- Assessing rain gauge measurements in comparison to satellite-derived precipitation estimates over the island of Jamaica – at The UWI Department of Geography and Geology, Mona.
- Conducting a feasibility study on developing a consortium of all English-speaking universities in the region that offer postgraduate programmes related to the built environment – at the University of Technology, Jamaica.
The CCRIF regional internship programme is part of CCRIF’s wider Technical Assistance (TA) Programme which was launched in 2010 – three years after the Facility was established – and operates as the Facility’s corporate social responsibility programme, further underscoring its value proposition as a development insurance company.
