hi everyone crystal here i just read this position paper on micro small and medium enterprises in barbados which explores how they can use and benefit from the rfi while barbados is known for the island's tourism and international business small businesses play a pivotal role in the country's socioeconomic development between 2015 and 2019 micro enterprises in the manufacturing sector employed 6.5 percent of the population yet these businesses face numerous challenges such as a lack of capital low profitability inadequate marketing and promotion and insufficient workforce and difficulty accessing financial instruments such as credit and insurance as a result they are especially vulnerable to the problems created by climate-related extreme events and natural hazards to manage this risk and protect themselves against negative financial impacts msmes could use disaster risk finance and transfer measures the problem is that many barriers prevent msmes from taking up that disaster risk finance some of these include small profit margins relatively high insurance costs limited choice in bundled insurance products low financial literacy and lack of incentives the msme position paper outlines several changes that these enterprises need to make that can increase their uptake insurance products need to be cost effective and designed to address the specific challenges of msmes a greater awareness and understanding of insurance products and how they can help small businesses provision of adequate coverage through an extended product range can allow msmes to recover more quickly from hazardous impacts flexible payment plans and quick payouts for small manufacturers are needed to ensure efficient business continuity and recovery our voices can make a difference in solving the plight of msmes and alleviating the strains placed on these businesses during natural disasters visit the caribbean policy development center's risk resilience hub for more details to learn more about this research