Hazard risk is a common threat to the viability of each of the CDEMA member countries and recent experiences with multi-hazard and multi-country impacts have served to underscore the economic and social vulnerability and fragility of the region as a whole. In May 2005 the European Union and the Secretariat of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group of States established an “ACP-EU Facility for Natural Disaster Management” aimed at contributing to disaster risk management and providing added-value at the sub-regional as well as intra-ACP levels. To this end the European Commission has partnered with Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to implement the Disaster Risks Management Sub-Regional Programme under the ACP-EU Natural Disaster Facility.
This project directly supports the Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy and Programming Framework, Priority Outcome three (3) which promotes “mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Management at national levels and incorporation into key sectors of national economies (including tourism, health, agriculture and nutrition); and Priority Outcome four (4) which promotes “the enhancement of community resilience in CDERA states/territories to mitigate and respond to the adverse effects of climate change and disasters.”
The project will be beneficial to the Directors of National Disaster Offices within the CDEMA Participating States in undertaking planning and institutional arrangements for building more resilient communities. Governments of participating states (PS) of CDEMA will ultimately benefit from improved capacity for making planning arrangements and better prepared and more resilient communities in the face of future disasters.
The EU has made available €1.8 million for defined activities to be implemented under the Disaster Risks Management Sub-Regional Programme in the Region over a two year period, ending November 14th, 2011.