The United Kingdom and Jamaica have signed a four-year reconstruction partnership with a £10 million first-year program to move recovery projects forward after Hurricane Melissa.
The governments will share the initial cost equally. The UK says its first-year funding is confirmed, while funding for subsequent years will be considered as the partnership develops; no total budget for all four years has been announced.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband and Jamaica’s Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith signed the agreement Nov. 1 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.
Arup, Mace and Gleeds, three UK firms, will make up the Jamaica UK Delivery Team. It will provide design, engineering, program management and procurement support to Jamaica’s National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA), which legislation established to coordinate major rebuilding and resilience work. The team plans to work with Jamaican professionals and help build local capacity to deliver projects.
The partnership is intended to prepare reconstruction priorities for investment, move them toward implementation and improve how progress, costs and results are tracked and reported. Jamaica Information Service reported that Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the arrangement should help advance projects and strengthen Jamaica’s ability to manage delivery over time.
Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica near New Hope on Oct. 28, 2025, as a Category 5 hurricane, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. The World Bank, in coordination with the Inter-American Development Bank, estimated physical damage at US$8.8 billion, equivalent to 41% of Jamaica’s 2024 gross domestic product. The estimate covers physical damage and excludes broader economic losses.
The UK points to the firms’ experience in Peru’s reconstruction, which included work on public facilities and flood protection. The announcement does not identify which Jamaican projects will come first, their individual budgets or when work is expected to begin.
