Better prepared for disasters: building resilience in Cuba

The Caribbean region is regularly battered by an array of natural hazards, which are becoming more frequent and intense year on year. Cuba makes no exception. The country has long suffered from a combination of hurricanes, floods and harsh droughts that put enormous pressure on both the food supply chain and farming community.

Droughts have become particularly severe in recent years. This trend is bound to evolve for the worse. The World Food Programme (WFP) indicates that in the first quarter of 2021, 82% of Cuba’s territory did not receive enough rainfall and that the entire national farming industry has insufficient water to guarantee the full development of crops. This puts Cuba at risk of spiraling into a nationwide food crisis.

The European Union allocated €2 million in 2020 to enhance the level of disaster preparedness in the Caribbean region. With EU humanitarian funding, the WFP and the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) assist both rural and urban communities in developing policies and methodologies to be more prepared and recover faster from natural hazards.

Story by Daniele Pagani, Regional Information Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.