The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Borrowing Member Countries (BMC’s) will soon be able to prepare for and respond more effectively to emergency situations, following approval of a US$750,000 grant to support the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in coordinating emergency assistance.
CDB’s support will strengthen CDEMA’s capacity to supplement national emergency response operations when a country experiences a hazard event.
Initiatives to be undertaken involve training of emergency response personnel, including social and gender experts to work with national teams.
CDEMA will also facilitate greater technical support for national disaster management entities through the development of Country Work Programmes.
The assistance is timely, particularly in light of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2022, which indicated that small island states are increasingly likely to be affected by the “most intense tropical cyclones, storm surges, droughts and changing precipitation patterns.”
