Mrs. Kelly Witkowski, Manager of IICA's Agricultural Climate Action and Sustainability Program provides a brief overview of the agriculture readiness and preparatory support project titled 'Strengthening the Foundation for a Climate Responsive Agricultural Sector in the Caribbean'. The overarching goal of this readiness project is to build a climate-responsive agricultural sector in the Caribbean. The expected impact of the project is the recognition of the key role of agriculture in meeting national and international (NDC, SDG) climate and sustainability commitments and the ability to make effective investments to enhance sectoral and national plans to achieve climate resilience and low emissions development.

Dr. Lyndelle St. Ville and Dr. Arlette Saint Ville present a summary report of the 'Validated Guidelines for Stakeholder Engagement with the Agriculture Sector' in nine (9) CARICOM countries, and some of the key challenges in engaging agriculture stakeholders are highlighted, with proposed guidelines for addressing these challenges.

Ms. Candice Ramessar, Development Specialist Consultant presents the findings of the Gender Strategy under the agriculture readiness and preparatory support project titled 'Strengthening the Foundation for a Climate Responsive Agricultural Sector in the Caribbean'. Ms. Ramessar highlights the objectives of the GCF gender policy and some of the key paragraphs which promote gender mainstreaming, and the results of the gender responsiveness stakeholder engagement.

Ms. Dianne Dormer, Agribusiness and Climate Change Adaptation Consultant presented the results of the Stakeholder Validation of National Inventories under the agriculture readiness and preparatory support project titled 'Strengthening the Foundation for a Climate Responsive Agricultural Sector in the Caribbean' which was funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and delves into the purpose of the inventories, data collection, and stakeholder validation processes, results of the review of national inventories and the proposed next steps.

Mrs. Nekelia Gregoire Carai, Technical Specialist in Soil and Water with IICA's Agricultural Climate Action and Sustainability Program presents the project vision for the concept notes expected to be developed under the agriculture readiness and preparatory support project titled 'Strengthening the Foundation for a Climate Responsive Agricultural Sector in the Caribbean', and puts in perspective the context of Caribbean agriculture and the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.