Learning from Each Other: Pacific and Caribbean Team Up to Exchange Knowledge on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management
[By Shobhna Decloitre, Communications Associate, UNDP Pacific Centre]
The vast Pacific Ocean, with island countries dotted across it, has many similarities with the Caribbean, where similar small island countries populate the Caribbean Seas. Their geographical similarity also brings with it similar challenges, especially when it comes to adapting to climate change and preparing to better face natural disasters like floods, cyclones, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
Pacific Islanders and people from the Caribbean have developed their own coping and adaptation methods, but these two regions have had limited exchanges of common experiences. In the past most ideas were exchanged through chance meetings or as a result of someone stumbling across the information.
Exchanges between the two regions have started now through the project: “South-South Cooperation between Pacific and Caribbean Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management”. Put simply the project aims to encourage a systematic sharing of knowledge and experiences to strengthen community safety and resilience to a range of natural disasters in both regions.
As part of this exchange project, a Caribbean delegation made up of five specialists was in Fiji in August to attend the Pacific Disaster Risk Management Partnership Network meeting from August 12 -13. The delegation consisted of: Dr Asha Kambon , the regional adviser at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Carlos Fuller, the Deputy Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre; Nicole Williams, the Disaster Management Officer for the International Federation of the Red Cross, Caribbean Regional Representation Office in Port of Spain; Tomás Gutiérrez, the Director General of the Institute of Meteorology and Permanent Representative of Cuba with the World Meteorological Organization; and Jacinda Fairholm, a regional program manager for the UNDP Caribbean Risk Management Initiative (CRMI) based out of the UNDP-Cuba office.
Dr Kambon, an expert in integrating gender in disaster responses, shared her experience from Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake.
“Many women in Haiti, sold produce that they grew or made from their homes with many getting loans to start their business. The earthquake destroyed their homes and as a consequence their means of livelihood. As a result recovery programmes were required to provide women with to the means to earn an income as well give them ready access to microfinance,” she said.
Carlos Fuller and Tomás Gutiérrez shared their approach to climate modeling, something which is relatively new in the Pacific. In the Caribbean the emphasis has been on the development of high resolution scenarios for small islands, with information on how different climate scenarios may impact on rain fall patterns, temperature and the length of the wet and dry seasons and the effect these changes will have on agricultural production. The modeling undertaken in Belize revealed the likely impact changes in climate were to have on both sugar and citrus production; which are major export commodities for that country.
The Caribbean delegation’s visit to Fiji had been preceded by an Asia-Pacific delegation’s visit to the Caribbean. Six Pacific participants and one participant from the Maldives toured the Caribbean in July, meeting their counterparts and exchanging ideas and expertise during a visit that spanned four Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Cuba, Barbados and St Lucia.
Presenting on the Pacific delegation’s visit to the Caribbean at the Platform meeting, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme’s (SPREP) Dr Netatua Pelesikoti said that she was impressed with the institutional arrangement in the Caribbean. Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), one of the key Caribbean partners in the South-South Cooperation project, is a regional inter-governmental agency responsible for disaster management and works closely with national actors in the areas of disaster risk reduction, recovery and mitigation.
Director of Metrology in Tonga 'Ofa Fa'anunu of Tonga Meteorological Service, who was part of the Pacific delegation to the Caribbean was greatly inspired by the metrology training programmes in the Caribbean.
“We in the Pacific have challenges in finding and retaining qualified meteorologists. Training programmes like they have in the Caribbean could be a good idea to get more meteorologists trained as well upskill those in the field already,” said Mr. Fa’anunu. The University of the South Pacific’s Dr. Kifle Kahsai, who was also part Pacific delegation, thought this was an idea worth further exploring.
In fact the Masters Programme on Climate Change that is offered in the Caribbean has its origins in USP. During his presentation at the Platform meeting, Carlos Fuller said that when the Caribbean countries decided to have a Masters programme in climate change they started looking at what universities in other parts of the world were doing.
“We got relevant syllabus from the University of the South Pacific and developed the curriculum. Our Masters programme has now been running for the past eight years,” said Mr Fuller.
More inter regional exchanges will be facilitated through the project. The south-south project is coordinated by UNDP Pacific Centre, with extensive support from the regional UNDP programme Caribbean Risk Management Initiative (CRMI) and UNDP’s sub-regional Centre in Trinidad and Tobago. Regional partners who are involved in the project’s governance structure and who lead the implementation of various activities include Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), CARICOM Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and University of the West Indies (UWI) from the Caribbean region. Key partners from the Pacific region include the Pacific Islands Applied Geo-Science Commission (SOPAC), South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and University of the South Pacific (USP).
The project is funded by UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation and by the UNDP-Japan Partnership Fund, with in-kind contributions from UNDP Pacific Centre from where it is coordinated.
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