Lavern Mcfarlane

Dr. Lavern McFarlane is currently employed at the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) as the Senior Economist where she provides intellectual leadership relating to all aspects of economic analysis and contributes to the strategic direction of the institution. Lavern leads and conducts economic research and develop empirical models relating to financial innovation, regional integration and cohesion. She is responsible for developing various policy options, strategies and proposals relating to integration, cohesion and development of competitive regional economies. She spearheaded the development of the CARICOM Cohesion Policy and successfully negotiated the approval by the CARICOM Heads of Government in February 2020and is integrally involved with the policy implementation. Dr. McFarlane was co-lead on the development of the Credit Risk Abatement Facility (CRAF) - an innovative credit enhancement instrument of the CDF, where she is the Chief Underwriter. She is also leading on the development of a Resilience Fund aimed at addressing financing for climate adaptation and mitigation in CARICOM