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At a public forum held in New Kingston, Jamaica was spotlighted as a front-runner among all small island developing states in building resilience. Given that resilience requires an understanding of risks and a robust financial plan, Jamaica's advancement of a disaster risk financing agenda and its development of a Financing of Disaster Risk Policy are exemplary.
Cities can never become entirely self-sufficient without acknowledging their dependence on other communities. Cities cannot be resilient unless they withstand disaster disruptions, address underlying risks, empower the vulnerable, and invest in local economic development.
Jamaica has been working on establishing a policy framework for disaster risk financing that will contain a suite of products for different levels of disaster and a transparent investment plan to mitigate harm to people and damage to infrastructure. The plan would maintain a contingency in the budget to deal with high frequency events, but low levels of damage.
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, says Jamaica will develop a Public Financial Management Policy for Natural Disaster Risk prior to the end of its Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF. The policy, Clarke said, will be combined with a ten-year operational plan for its implementation and will be done with the technical assistance of multilateral partners.
The Meteorological Service of Jamaica will develop a multi-criteria model for bush fire prediction in the upcoming fiscal year as it seeks to better manage this natural hazard. The project will see the development of a comprehensive bush fire warning index.
The Climate Change and Multi-Hazard Contingency Programme seeks to strengthen the resilience of the tourism sector against the various natural disasters and emergencies that may disrupt industry operations. The programme is focused on developing comprehensive disaster-risk-reduction strategies for the sector.
The World Bank-financed Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) will provide technical assistance and training to fast-track the process of understanding and implementing a new building code in Jamaica as well as parameters to regulate the informal building sector. The new Building Act will replace the country's 109 year-old building code.
Speaking in an interview with JIS News, Director of Information and Training at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Cheryl Nichols, says before an earthquake, persons should undertake what is called a hazard hunt, reports Jamaica Observer. An Earthquake Awareness Month is being observed in the country from January 1-30...
Voluntary Commitments
The organization has no registered commitments.
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.
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