Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Caribbean agency addresses disaster management issues for 2007
01-01-2007

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CDERA): Coordinator of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), Jeremy Collymore has appealed to the region not to be lulled into state of complacency as a result of the relatively inactive hurricane season. We need to take note of the many hazard events that impacted several Caribbean countries during 2006 and remain focused in 2007 on developing and strengthening our resilience to reducing disaster risk to all hazards.

“Too many of us are still focused only on preparing for the hurricane season”, he said, “But the reality is that the Caribbean is exposed to major hazards - natural and man-made. This year several CDERA Participating States, including Jamaica, St Kitts/Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were adversely affected by floods; earthquakes were felt in Trinidad and Tobago, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines; landslides occurred in the Eastern Caribbean Islands whilst the Montserrat volcano continues to be active”.

Collymore also drew attention to the cruise ship fire in Jamaican waters that caused the death of one person and injured 11 early in 2006, a sea accident and hazmat scare at a local post office in the BVI, and the recent air craft accident off St Vincent and the Grenadines as reminders of the varied nature of hazards that face us in the region.

“At this time we also recognize that Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 is now a few months away and the challenges of countries across the region as they accelerate their efforts to fine tune facilities contingency plans and ensure that their disaster management mechanisms are ready for any emergency. This is an opportunity for promoting linkages between preparedness planning and public safety.”

In this regard CDERA has been working closely with the CWC 2007 Public Safety and Disaster Manager who is based at the CDERA Coordinating Unit in Barbados. He also noted that United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS) Land based Search and Rescue (L-SAR) Project which concluded in March 2006, provided equipment and trained persons in all 16 of CDERA member states who can be mobilized during CWC 2007. More investment is however needed to build on this legacy to strengthen our capacity in search and rescue operations of mass casualty events.

Throughout 2006 CDERA intensified its efforts to broker stakeholder partnerships and involve the private sector partners in consultative dialogue on framing the way forward for their full engagement in advancing the CDM Programme. A major outcome of these dialogues was brokering an agreement with the Tourism Sector, the main engine of economic growth in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) partnered with CDERA, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) in a successful bid for US $800,000.00 for a Regional Public Goods grant from the Inter-American Development Bank to develop a Regional Risk Reduction Strategy for the Tourism Sector.

Consultations with the agriculture sector, another major sector in the Caribbean and one that has generally been adversely affected by hurricane, floods, drought, landslides and volcanic eruptions have led to renewed collaboration between CDERA and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to improve disaster risk preparedness in the agriculture sector.

A significant factor of the stakeholder consultations in 2006 was the opportunity provided for reviewing the CDM programme which was introduced in 2001. A revised strategy and framework was presented at the inaugural Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management held in Barbados December 11-14, 2006. This milestone event was supported by some 110 persons including representatives from the tourism, telecommunications, health, education, agriculture, environment sectors, development partners and disaster management practitioners.

The Conference agreed on a general framework and strategy for CDM advancement which targeted country needs and aimed at coordinating and harmonizing resources and programs. Priority areas identified for moving the process forward are:

Improving of programming at regional and national levels

Building capacity for community resilience to hazards and mainstreaming of climate change

Establishing knowledge transfer protocols

Developing disaster risk management programs for key sectors nationally and regionally.

Collymore said that in 2007 CDERA will move to advance dialogue on a results based programming approach as this will allow for more efficient use of scare resources and effective monitoring of their use and achievements. Emphasis will also be placed on improving and establishing mechanisms for Information sharing with partners and deepening our engagement with Sectors such as health, education, tourism, and agriculture. We will also upscale our planning for rapid onset hazards, such as earthquakes. Further, the revision of the CDERA Agreement has been significantly advanced and will be shared in the new year with the appropriate legal entities and the Council.

In 2007 the CDERA Coordinating Unit will develop a three year programme aimed at supporting the revised CDM strategy and framework. One of the CU’s biggest challenges for 2007 will be the rolling out of the multi year projects to be financed under the European Development Fund and the Regional Public Goods Grant from the Inter-American Development Bank. The initiatives of our regional institutions the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and UWI to strengthen their facility for supporting the regional process will be central to realizing our disaster management agenda.

Managing disaster risk goes beyond adopting a multi hazard and integrative approach as advocated under the Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM), but purposefully seeking to effect policies and practices that will embrace the comprehensiveness in every sector of our society.

The CDERA Participating States will become the centre piece of these efforts as CDERA continues in 2007 to work with partners in deepening and strengthening the integrative approach to managing disaster risk and reducing our vulnerability to the many hazards that threaten our sustainability.