Bridgetown – Barbados was the venue for the fifth meeting of the Regional Technical Working Group on Disaster Risk Assessment (RTWG) of the Physical and Environmental Planning Sector Subcommittee of the Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Coordination and Harmonization Council.
The two-day meeting held under the theme, ‘Towards a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Framework for the Caribbean’ was organized by the University of Twente, Centre for Disaster Resilience (CDR), (UT CDR) in partnership with CDEMA, and support from Küresel Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS), United Nations University on February 27th and 28th, at the Marriott-Courtyard Hotel.
In addressing the opening, Disaster Risk Management Specialist with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Nicole Greenidge told those gathered “that a priority goal of the (RTWG) for 2024 is the development, promotion and use of agreed methodological approaches for risk assessments to address hazards within CDEMA Participating States.”
The hybrid meeting which was financed through support from the EU-funded PARATUS project, (Promoting disaster preparedness and resilience by co-developing stakeholder support tools for managing the systemic risk of compounding disasters), was convened to review its current status and future direction, develop a plan for the risk assessment methodology in view of climate change and development scenarios and exchange knowledge on risk assessment approaches within SIDS from different regions.
Project Coordinator, Professor Dr. Cees van Westen explained that the [PARATUS] project will develop risk assessments and “impact-scenarios” that are responsible for complex hazard interactions in case study areas, Romania, Istanbul, the Alpines and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Co-chair of the Working Group and the Caribbean Planners Association’s representative, Dr. Yolanda Alleyne said ‘risk assessments are a very important tool in the spatial planning toolkit and the availability of risk assessment veri makes for better development planning and decision making on proposed public and private investments within the region.’
Participating States:
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands