BRIDGETOWN, Barbados.- The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean takes its disaster assessment expertise to Barbados from 14-16 March 2017, for a seminar that will benefit representatives of national disaster agencies from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and St Kitts and Nevis.

Entitled ‘Disaster Risk Management and Resilience Building’, the seminar will facilitate discussions on a number of timely issues, including the role of planning in disaster risk management, its impact on the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the role of risk transfer in enhancing fiscal sustainability in the Caribbean. 

Discussions will be enriched by contributions of the CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) and of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), which will be hosting the event.

The seminar will also include a two-day training component, which will strengthen the capacities of disaster management personnel in the Caribbean to assess the effects and impacts of disasters, and guide resilient reconstruction processes.

ECLAC’s disaster assessment methodology estimates the effects and impacts of a disaster, and is composed of three sectors, namely social, infrastructure and productive, which constitutes a multisectoral approach. Through the training, these sectors are analyzed by each of their subcomponents. In addition, the methodology incorporates two cross-cutting themes: gender issues and the environment.

This training follows the successful outcome of a four-day disaster training workshop held in Trinidad and Tobago in January 2017, organized by ECLAC in collaboration with the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and a previous work session between ECLAC and CDEMA in December 2016.