Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, September 16, 2014 (CDEMA) - On September 16th, 2014, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), the Canadian Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) met at the Barbados Red Cross Society to review the key results, achievements and lessons of a 3-year community-based disaster risk reduction project (2011-2014) entitled ‘Caribbean Community Resilience to Disaster Risk’.
The project, funded by DFATD and the Canadian Red Cross, was implemented by the Jamaica Red Cross Society, the Guyana Red Cross Society and the Dominica Red Cross Society. The IFRC Caribbean Regional Representation Office, based in Port of Spain, with the IFRC’s Caribbean Disaster Risk Management Reference Centre (CADRIM) and CDEMA, both based in Barbados, were integral partners in this regional project.
Some of the key project achievements included: 1) training and equipping 830 Community Disaster Response Team members across the Caribbean (220 males and 571 females); 2) disseminating 10,024 family disaster plans, and 3) conducting assessments of 45 communities’ vulnerabilities and capacities with community members in Dominica, Guyana and Jamaica. The project also measured an increase of 37% in community preparedness across the communities in Guyana and Jamaica using data collected by the Johns Hopkins Community Disaster Risk Reduction Monitoring and Evaluation tool. At a regional level, CADRIM facilitated the development, adaptation and testing of tools and methodologies on contingency planning, climate change adaptation, emergency simulations as well as a participatory and transparent targeting mechanism to identify highly vulnerable communities within any Caribbean country.
Four documentary films and related information graphics were produced by the Canadian Red Cross to document work undertaken by the work, capture key project results, and highlight lessons learned. These films can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/user/canadianredcross/videos.
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