Remittance to resilience: a SIDS-owned endowment model for climate finance and development

This report proposes the SIDS Diaspora Resilience Fund (SDRF) as a response to the financing crisis facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS) due to aid cuts and reduction in climate finance.

Millions of people from SIDS live and work overseas, and every year they send billions of dollars in remittances back home to their families. A substantial portion of this money is charged as fees by private money transfer companies before it reaches the families.

The SDRF would create a SIDS-owned digital remittance platform where the margins would be redirected to create a permanent sovereign endowment fund investing in climate resilience and development.

This report sets out why existing finance is failing SIDS, explains how the SDRF would work, demonstrates its feasibility and outlines the actions needed to operationalise it.