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REMARKS
CARIBBEAN EXPERIENCES ON RECOVERY PLANNING ONLINE FORUM
BEYOND LESSONS LEARNED FROM POST-DISASTER RECOVERY:
THE CARIBBEAN NARRATIVE
UNDP RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE, DENISE E ANTONIO
27 July 2020
Salutations
- Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice Chancellor, University of the West Indies
- Hon. Iram Lewis, Minister, Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, The Bahamas
- Ms. Gloria Joseph, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Planning, Resilience, Sustainable Development, Telecommunications and Broadcasting – Commonwealth of Dominica
- Mrs. Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director, CDEMA
- Dr. Virginia Clerveaux, Head Department of Disaster Management, Turks and Caicos Islands
- Justin Ram, Chief Executive Officer, GSEC
- Mr. Richard Carter, COVID-19 Zhar, Barbados
- Chair/Moderator, Jeremy Collymore, Consultant Disaster Resilience, University of the West Indies
- ·Other distinguished guests and presenters
- Online participants, viewers
- Ladies and gentlemen all
Good morning. I am delighted to bring remarks today at this apt online event: BEYOND LESSONS LEARNED FROM POST-DISASTER RECOVERY: THE CARIBBEAN NARRATIVE
Caribbean countries boast captivating beauty, rich endowments of biodiversity, melting pots of cultures, energy and vivacity. They share similarities and differences, but one thing Caribbean countries have in common is their vulnerability to frequent and costly natural disasters, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Many are among the most vulnerable nations in terms of disasters per capita or land area (IMF).
According to the IMF, the economic cost of these disasters for the Caribbean is substantial, exceeding US$22 billion between 1950 and 2016, compared with US$58 billion for similar disasters globally. This does not include Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and Dorian in 2019. Damages and losses for Hurricane Dorian alone in The Bahamas was about US$2.5 billion[1] (1% of GDP). For some countries, the damage well exceeds the size of the economy: Hurricane Maria in 2017 is estimated to have cost Dominica 225 percent of its GDP. The fact is that these severe and frequent natural disasters expose the high vulnerabilities of the Caribbean countries and the need to enhance and advance economic, social and environmental resilience. Natural disasters impact lives and livelihoods, stunts and often erases development progress, and traps people in cycles of poverty and vulnerability, leaving them only more exposed to future disasters.
I have good news and bad news for you this morning. I prefer to focus on the good news so I will give you the bad news first. The bad news is that the region will continue to be impacted by climate change and experience its effects in varied forms such as increased frequency to natural hazards. The region is also currently experiencing the unprecedented and disproportionate impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic. The good news is, that all these challenges provide us with opportunities to adapt to and mitigate risks. They allow us to be creative and innovative and work collectively to find solutions that will save lives and property. They enable us to find ways and means of coping with and recovering from disasters and pandemics.
The fact that we must live with high risk to natural hazards and experience significant natural disasters (and now pandemics), it is imperative that together as a region we put in place adequate measures to prepare, respond and recover. Caribbean countries have been collectively improving disaster/crisis preparedness and response, but not enough attention is being paid to recovery and the move to Resilient Nations. In essence, the build back better approach, although regarded as critical, is not yet integrated sufficiently in development planning at all levels.
UNDP supports recovery that helps people and countries build back better, thus reducing risk and building resilience. Recovery should get back countries on the road to development in the shortest possible time. By partnering with national governments, NGOs, civil society groups, academia, private sector and communities, UNDP emphasizes the human and social aspects of recovery.
UNDP recognizes that a major part of recovery and improving resilience is learning valuable lessons from each other on past disaster events. The wealth of diverse experiences with disasters in the Caribbean; innovative, adaptive and build back better approaches employed; assessments done; expertise deployed; and policy measures taken must be unlocked and shared as integral lessons among the countries. Simply, the sharing of knowledge, lessons and best practices in post-disaster recovery enables countries to adopt, adapt and invent measures to fast-track recovery. A part of this recovery also hinges on a regional roster of experts that can be deployed to support the region’s response and recovery process. The preparedness, response and subsequent measures put in place to address the impacts of COVID-19 will produce valuable lessons for the Caribbean.
Post-disaster recovery planning means restoring our economies, making infrastructure resilient, enhancing our social protection systems, facilitating and enabling paradigm shifts in policy and development planning, especially in light of COVID-19, but on a human level it means ensuring that every person in our respective countries and communities have the know-how, capacity and resources to “bounce back” after a disaster or pandemic.
I congratulate the University of the West Indies and partners for organizing this important event and hope that it will be the start of many such fora for sharing our knowledge and experiences. Being imbued with appropriate knowledge and applying that knowledge to produce innovative solutions is the hallmark of countries moving towards Resilient Recovery. I wish you a productive, informative and engaging knowledge sharing event.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you.
