Under its flagship Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) programme, CDRI is supporting 23 projects across 25 SIDS to achieve sustainable development through resilient, inclusive, and sustainable infrastructure. IRIS projects are funded through the Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund (IRAF), a multi-partner trust fund established with support from the Governments of India, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and the European Union. Focus areas include policies and regulatory frameworks, national capacities, strengthening early warning and data systems, and span critical and social infrastructure sectors, including - Energy, Water and Sanitation, Telecommunications, Housing, Transport, Health, Education, and Coastal Infrastructure.

CDRI is hosting a Learning Webinar Series on “Infrastructure Resilience in Island States” in collaboration with project implementing partners to disseminate the key lessons, outcomes, and next steps from the IRIS First Cohort projects that have concluded or are set to conclude in 2026. Commenced in September 2026, the webinars will be hosted on DRI Connect (CDRI’s knowledge exchange, learning, and collaborative platform) to share knowledge, good practices, and foster peer-to-peer learning in SIDS regions.

Each webinar will combine presentations by the implementing teams and government representatives along with reflections by IRIS donors, regional experts, and partner organizations to facilitate experiential learning across the SIDS regions. The presentations will emphasize the project approach, outcomes, learnings, and impacts and will adopt mixed methods, such as technical insights, training and awareness metrics, knowledge products developed, tools or data dashboard demonstrations, and testimonial videos.

IRIS Learning Webinar 3:

Aligning with IRIS Programme’s key outcome on promoting gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) in SIDS, the third webinar in this series will spotlight three projects in the Caribbean region that are integrating inclusion interventions across project stages:

• Strengthening Capacities, Security and Resilience of Critical Infrastructure in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti
• Data and Systems for Resilient Housing Programs in Dominica
• Towards Developing Strategic Sustainable Integrated National Drainage and Irrigation Systems in Guyana

Hosted in collaboration with the three project implementing partners - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Build Change, and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) - the webinar will emphasize the GEDSI interventions integrated across various stages of the projects to promote resilient and inclusive infrastructure development. The interventions range from integrating GESI considerations in the national drainage and irrigation planning in Guyana, gender and disability disaggregated data collection during the national housing survey of Dominica, and participatory review and consultation processes for improvement of water and education infrastructure in Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Haiti.

In the Lightning Talks segment, each project implementing partner will have five minutes to deliver key GEDSI interventions undertaken under respective IRIS projects. This will be followed by a Reflections segment to focus on strengthening capacities and knowledge to mainstream resilient and inclusive infrastructure across the SIDS regions.