AS THE New Year beckons, a reminder of the need to work to build back better, given the devastation of COVID-19, has come from one project manager tasked to help realise climate resilience and sustainable development for the Caribbean. “We have developed an economic system allowing for ‘endless growth’ resulting in ever-growing industrialisation and production, new cities and faster transport facilities for the increasing human population,” observed Jan Betlem, regional coordinator for the ‘Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island States’ (IWEco) project. He was writing in the quarterly newsletter of the Global Environment Facility-funded project, which was published in mid-December.