PAHO has established the Caribbean 1 Health Disaster Risk Reduction (CHDRR) Committee. This approach is in keeping with the tremendous effort afoot in the Caribbean to harmonize and mainstream comprehensive disaster management (CDM).

The CHDRR committee acts as a forum for strategic discussion, bringing together partners on health and disaster, in a concerted effort to reduce disaster risks to the health sectors in the Caribbean. Specifically it will:

1. Identify opportunities, challenges and gaps in achieving a satisfactory level of disaster resiliency in the Caribbean health sector, and develop strategies towards that end.
2. Perform functions as the Comprehensive Disaster Management Health Sector Sub­ Committee
3. Fulfil  the  monitoring  and  progress  analysis  requirements  of  health  disaster  risk reduction projects/programmes being implemented in the Caribbean.
4. The committee will implement these functions through a symbiotic relationship with the existing coordination and monitoring mechanism for health disaster management in the region - the Health Disaster Coordinators.

The key functions of the committee include:

• Identify   challenges and gaps regarding the implementation  of  health  disaster  risk reduction projects/programmes in the health sector;
• Identify  opportunities for inter and intra sectoral linkages to avoid duplication of work and ensure efforts are complimentary;
• Agree  on  and  utilize  a  mechanism  for   monitoring,  evaluating  and  reporting   on implementation  of  health disaster risk  reduction projects/programmes  in  the  health sector;
• Review health disaster risk reduction project/programmes results and adjust activities and indicators as necessary;
• Discuss and  address  any  other  issue(s)  pertinent  to  the  good  governance  and sustainability of health disaster risk reduction projects/programmes in the health sector;
• Nurture  opportunities  for  synergies  between  development  partner  representatives, participating states, private sector, civil society and other relevant stakeholders responsible for implementing health disaster risk reduction projects/programmes in the health sector;
• Provide overall  leadership and  guidance  for  the  mainstreaming,  coordination  and harmonization of CDM implementation in the health sector at the national and regional levels;
• Advocate  and  foster  the  achievement  of  priority   results  designed  to  mainstream comprehensive disaster management in the health sector;
• Function as  the  communication channel  between  the  health  sector  and  the  CDM Coordination and Harmonization Council, reporting on the  progress, issues (including governance) and recommendations form the CHDRR committee.

The CHDRR Committee comprise representatives from key specialized health sector agencies and technical representatives (HDCs) from the Ministries of Health in the Caribbean. The permanent members are PAHO, CDERA CU and at least two donor organizations, with additional members selected from each of the following clusters:

Specifically, the CHDRR Committee comprise the following members for the next two years:

1. PAHO
2. CDERA CU Representative
3. CIDA (Donor)
4. DFID (Donor)
5. CEHI
6. Ministry of Health Representative from St Kitts & Nevis
7. Ministry of Health Representative from Curacao
8. Ministry of Health Representative from Trinidad and Tobago