CARICOM: 'Resolve and resilience in the face of risk' - Ambassador Irwin LaRocque

Greater Georgetown, Guyana - Based on the history of frequency of hazard impacts and related social and economic losses, Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Understandably, then, the subject of disaster risk reduction is a key item on the agenda of the Sixth Summit of the Americas, which takes place this weekend in Cartagena, Colombia.

Under the overarching theme of “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity,” the Heads of State and Government of 34 countries will examine how to strengthen regional collaboration and reduce obstacles standing in the way of development. In this context, they will promote strategic cooperation among the specialized disaster management institutions in the hemisphere and seek to improve mechanisms to reduce and manage risks.

Volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts and floods are permanent features of the development landscape. Comparing the years 1971-1975 with 2002-2005, the frequency of droughts in the hemisphere has increased by 360%, hurricanes 521% and floods 266%. This suggests that the issues associated with climate change and climate variability must be assertively addressed in our disaster-reduction policy and overarching development planning frameworks.

In the Caribbean, with a population of some 18 million people, very few countries have escaped serious disaster-related damage within the past two decades. Approximately three-quarters of this population is estimated to live in at-risk areas, and one-third lives in areas highly exposed to hazards.

That harsh reality is reflected in a recent report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which finds that in the past four decades, natural disasters have caused significant fatalities. In the last 10 years, it estimates the financial toll from natural disasters in this hemisphere to be more than US $446 billion. The impact on society and economy has been debilitating.

The Haiti January 2010 earthquake, where an estimated 230,000 of our sisters and brothers perished, the capital city lay devastated and losses were estimated at US$5 billion, is the most recent reminder of the fragility of our societies. Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998 and Hurricane Ivan in Grenada and Cayman Islands in 2004, where losses as a percentage of GDP exceeded 100% in most cases, reinforce the importance of this subject matter to the region.

In the Caribbean, our current threats are being exacerbated by the unfolding consequences of climate change and sea-level rise. We are now faced with more frequent high-magnitude hurricanes, floods and droughts which are at the same time becoming more difficult to anticipate. The floods associated with Tropical Storm Tomas, which affected Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2010, and those in Brazil, Guatemala and Peru in recent years, demonstrate the cross-boundary nature of the challenge.

In the Caribbean alone, the projected cost of inaction in adapting to and managing climate change-related consequences is estimated at US $10.7 billion per year by 2025 and could double by 2050, according to statistics cited by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. “The net effect of costs on this scale is equivalent to causing a perpetual economic recession in each of the CARICOM Member States,” it says in Delivering Transformational Change 2011-21, a report approved at last month’s CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Suriname.

We are clear that disaster reduction is a central development problem; its negative impact on efforts to reduce poverty is well documented. The loss of critical social assets such as schools, hospitals, ports and housing erode our development gains. This makes resilience a central goal of our sustainable development agenda.

Resilience speaks to the policies, systems and practices we engage in to confront the challenges from the inevitable hazard impacts. Networks and other mechanisms for experience sharing will augment states' options. Equally important is that this all-inclusive approach to risk reduction creates a new space for partnership at the national, regional and international levels.

This is not a problem for any one state. It requires a community of risk-sensitive policy leaders, as the Cartagena Summit will affirm. The nations of the Americas must ensure that disaster risk management is a priority in public policies and development strategies. They must strengthen mechanisms to reduce risks, find new ways to share expertise and improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance when disasters occur. And they must allocate resources and identify financing mechanisms to support sound strategies, in partnership with sub-regional, regional and global financial institutions. The enormity of the challenge demands political resolve and significant, sustained investment.