PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Senator Martin Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of National Security, will deliver the feature address at a meeting hosted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) that will bring together as many as 40 technical experts from various institutions in the field of disaster assessments, to review the available tools and methodologies.

The meeting takes place from 27 February to 1 March at ECLAC’s Port of Spain offices and is being held in collaboration with the OECS, UNDP Barbados and CDERA - the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency.

The Caribbean Region is particularly prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and flooding, all of which have impacted negatively on the economic, social and environmental development efforts of these countries.

Evidence of this can be found in economic losses due to Hurricane Ivan in 2004 in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Grenada that were recorded at close to one billion US dollars.

Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne resulted in losses of over US$500 million in the Bahamas and in economic set backs of US $300 million for the Dominican Republic.

Earthquake activity in Dominica in 2005 resulted in losses in the sum of almost US$50 million.

The Region has not only suffered economic losses but populations and infrastructure have also been affected. Over the last decades, population increases and developmental pressures have led to the expansion and creation of centres of population in areas that are vulnerable to these natural hazards.

For example, in some of the islands of the eastern Caribbean, the physical terrain has forced the development of towns and villages to be within the coastal zone, usually the first locations to be affected by tropical storms and hurricanes.

This meeting will identify areas for making strategic linkages and applications to improve disaster assessment methodologies, taking into consideration the link between disasters and development. It will help to strengthen analyses for risk reduction and vulnerability assessments in the Caribbean and make recommendations for the use of specific methodologies to support preparedness as well as monitoring and evaluation of disasters.

ECLAC has extensive expertise in post-disaster impact assessment with its Disaster Impact Assessment team supporting the Region in the conduct of disaster assessments. The team of professionals is usually among the first to visit a country immediately following a natural disaster.

Many of the techniques developed for post-disaster assessments also apply to predisaster vulnerability assessments. ECLAC has also supported the development of a Social Vulnerability Index that examines education, health, security and social order, communication and population characteristics as measures of social vulnerability.