Caribbean Business Enabling Environment-Reform (CBEE-R) Project - USAID

Caribbean Business Enabling Environment-Reform (CBEE-R) Project - USAID

Tambourine Innovation Ventures (TIV) served as a subcontractor under the Caribbean Business Enabling Environment Reform (CBEE-R) project, a three-year, $8.6 million regional initiative implemented by International Development Group LLC (IDG) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project operated across ten Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) countries, including Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago, with the overarching goal of promoting a safe, prosperous, and resilient Caribbean region that supported vulnerable populations, withstood external shocks, and fostered accountable institutions, economic development, and private sector-led growth.

The CBEE-R project pursued four central objectives: (i) improving the regulatory climate for resilient businesses, (ii) strengthening government capacity to implement business environment reforms, (iii) establishing or enhancing public–private dialogue, and (iv) bolstering resilient private sector development overall. These objectives were operationalized through six result areas, including improved access to electricity for business, greater internet connectivity and digital economy readiness, expanded access to digital financial services, improved conditions for firm financing, streamlined regulatory compliance, and more effective public–private dialogue.

TIV’s role concentrated on Objectives 1 and 2, focusing on the regulatory climate and government capacity to enact reforms. To this end, TIV deployed senior experts in public finance, monetary and trade economics, business development, and grant management. Their contributions encompassed inputs to annual work plans, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks, sustainability strategies, quarterly and annual performance reports, and the project’s final reporting deliverables.

TIV’s team applied international and regional expertise across four core reform areas: investment climate diagnostics, subsidy and energy reform, digital finance, and trade facilitation. Through targeted analyses, the team identified regulatory bottlenecks, fiscal inefficiencies, and barriers to private sector growth, while also highlighting opportunities to expand renewable energy, modernize trade regimes, and strengthen digital financial ecosystems. By combining evidence-based research with participatory consultation, TIV helped design reform pathways that were aligned with international best practices and responsive to the diverse contexts of ESC economies. This approach ensured that the project’s recommendations were practical, politically feasible, and validated through local ownership, creating a stronger foundation for reforms that were both sustainable and growth-oriented.

Through CBEE-R, TIV supported governments and private sector actors across the ESC in identifying binding constraints, co-designing solutions, and building coalitions for reform implementation. The project demonstrated how regional initiatives could align donor resources, technical expertise, and local capacity to strengthen competitiveness, resilience, and sustainable growth. TIV’s role as a subcontractor underscored its ability to deliver high-level policy advice, practical reform strategies, and capacity-building support in complex multi-country environments.