Trinidad and Tobago

The United Nations has supported the people and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for more than 50 years. Over that period, the United Nations has offered development assistance, ensuring that no one is left behind as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and striving towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently there are nineteen (19) UN agencies serving Trinidad and Tobago: UNICEF, UNLIREC, UNIC, FAO, ILO, UNDP, UN  Women, UNFPA, UNEP, PAHO/WHO, ECLAC, UNESCO, UNHCR, IOM, UN AIDS, IMO, UNODC, ITU and WFP. 

Elliot Ross-Dick
Caption: (Left) Elliot Ross-Dick, 13, and other students go for a short walk during a gender-based violence workshop organised by the NGO Create Future Good, where students conceive and create murals addressing the issues during the five day workshop, in Port of Spain, in Port of Spain, Trinidad island, Trinidad & Tobago, eastern Caribbean.
Photo: © UNICEF/Nesbitt

The United Nations Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework (UN MSDF) defines how the UN will jointly achieve development results in partnership with 18 English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries and Overseas Territories for the period 2017-2021. The countries covered are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cura ҫao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The framework aims to ensure that no one is left behind in national development efforts, and exemplifies the commonlyshared belief that similar development challenges of the Caribbean countries require a coherent and coordinated response by the UN.

The four priority areas of the UN MSDF seek to safeguard the jointly agreed commitments reflected in the human rights conventions and treaties as key strategies to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

  1. Priority Area 1: An Inclusive, Equitable and Prosperous Trinidad and Tobago: (i) Ensuring by 2021 increasing access to quality education and life-long learning, for enhanced employability and sustainable economic development and (ii) ensuring access to equitable social protection systems, quality services and sustainable economic opportunities improved.
  2. Priority Area 2: A Healthy Trinidad and Tobago: (i) Improving by 2021, universal access to quality health care services and systems and (ii) introducing laws, policies, and systems to support healthy lifestyles among all segments of the population.
  3. Priority Area 3: A Safe, Cohesive, and Just Trinidad and Tobago: (i) By 2021 strengthen capacities of public policy and rule-of-law institutions and civil society organisations and (ii) reinforce equitable access to justice, protection, citizen security and safety.
  4. Priority Area 4: A Sustainable and Resilient Trinidad and Tobago: (i) Putting in place policies and programmes for climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and universal access to clean and sustainable energy by 2021 and (ii) adopting inclusive and sustainable solutions for the conservation, restoration, and use of ecosystems and natural resources.
  5. Ratifying the Paris Agreement: In 2018 the Honourable Camille Robinson-Regis, Minister of Planning and Development announced that Trinidad and Tobago deposited its instrument of ratification to the Paris Agreement on climate change on February 22nd, 2018 in New York at the United Nations’ Headquarters. This commitment means that Trinidad and Tobago will have to reduce cumulative greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent from industry, power generation and the transport sector by 2030 from a business as usual baseline.
  6. COVID-19 Response: Through the United Nations agency, PAHO/WHO, the UN has been providing technical assistance to the government on containing the virus and managing its impact; keeping everyone up to date on the latest information about the virus and its effect across the globe; and relaying PAHO/WHO’s advice to everyone on staying healthy and protecting each other while we battle this pandemic.