Our Work on the Sustainable Development Goals in Trinidad and Tobago

The United Nations Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in the Caribbean (MSDCF), which is aligned to the SDGs, identifies a single framework for the UN to partner with the region for joint Caribbean development. This document is a plan for UN development activities in the 22 countries within the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean for a five-year period. These activities support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. The current MSDCF runs from 2022 to 2026. This particular plan specifically takes into account the need to ‘Build Back Better’ from the Covid-19 pandemic, and to address structural vulnerabilities unique to the Caribbean as a whole. All 17 Sustainable Development Goals are covered by this plan, but strategic priority was given to 73 of the total 169 SDG targets. Twenty-two UN Funds, programmes and agencies work together for the UN system. The UN partners with governments, public sector entities, regional institutions, private sector, civil society, the media, and other entities to achieve the objectives of the MSDCF. This MSDCF organises the UN's development work in the Caribbean around four major thematic areas: Shared Prosperity and Economic Resilience; Equality, Well-being and Leaving No One Behind; Resilience to Climate Change/Shocks and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources; Peace, Safety, Justice and the Rule of Law. To ensure the MSDCF is rolled out in Trinidad and Tobago in alignment with the country's national agenda for sustainable development, the UN Country Team partners with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago on a Country Implementation Plan (CIP). A CIP is drafted and implemented annually for the duration of the five-year MSDCF cycle, with the UN Country Team delivering annual reports to account for the work done in the previous year's CIP. In the first year of implementation of this MSDCF -2022 - the UN invested US $10 million in sustainable development in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2023, the UN is on track to match or exceed that investment.