Abstracts and Reports
PAN-CARIBBEAN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
AND PREVENTION
In 1981 the Office of the U.N. Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO) sponsored a multi-agency project on disaster preparedness and prevention in the Caribbean. That project, which included PAHOIWHO participation, was the largest ever undertaken by UNDRO. The following account provides a brief review of this project.
An important proposal for the regional project in disaster preparedness and prevention for the Caribbean island states developed mainly from the recommendations made at a seminar on Caribbean Disaster Preparedness held in St. Lucia in June 1979 that was attended by over 150 participants, including representatives of 22 Caribbean governments. Two months earlier, a violent volcanic eruption on St. Vincent had forced the evacuation of over 20,000 people from the northern half of that island; and while the seminar itself was in progress, widespread flooding of western Jamaica rendered 35,000 homeless. Ten weeks after the seminar, the worst hurricane in several years devastated most of Dominica and large parts of the Dominican Republic, killing over 1,400 people, injuring 6,000, leaving more than 260,000 homeless, and causing damages estimated at US$830 mil- lion.
It was against this backdrop of destructive natural disasters that the Caribbean island states endorsed the idea of a regional project in disaster preparedness and prevention. While recognizing their national responsibility to improve disaster preparedness measures, the Caribbean govem- ments fully appreciated the need for mutual cooperation within the region and for procure- ment of expertise and specialized assistance from abroad.
The 1979 disasters illustrated the typical chal- lenges to disaster management-including the
need to issue warnings widely and rapidly; the difficulties of quickly moving many thousands of people away from the most vulnerable areas; the importance of establishing evacuation cen- ters, feeding programs, coordination centers, emergency communication systems, and dam- age assessment and reporting procedures. In the case of hurricanes, especially, they demon- strated the urgent need to apply simple preventive measures such as anchoring roofs securely to buildings and providing strong shutters for glass windows-most notably for windows in build- ings intended as public shelters. These disasters also made it clear, especially in the smaller states where devastation from a single event may ex- tend over the entire territory, that the provision of immediate assistance from neighboring coun- tries is critically important and tends to be much more effective if planned in advance.
The events of 1979 led to a resolution that was adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) and en- dorsed by the U.N. General Assembly in Novem- ber 1979. This resolution stated that “the United Nations, and more particularly the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, should study ways and means of setting up spe- cific machinery to cope with the natural disasters that periodically occur in the Caribbean Basin.”
A final reminder of the need to improve disas- ter preparedness and prevention was provided by the first hurricane of the 1980 season. One
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of the biggest of the century, it ripped through Saint Lucia, southwestern Haiti, and northern Jamaica leaving 250 dead, 205,000 homeless, and 525,000 deprived of their normal source of food; it also did roughly US$530 million worth of damage. By then, however, a group of na- tional and international agencies’ and country representatives was already engaged in assem- bling the “specific machinery” which in 198 1 became the Pan-Caribbean Disaster Prepared- ness and Prevention Project (PCDPPP).
Project Objectives
The project’s long-term objective, as stated in its 63-page Project Document, is to develop the individual and collective capacity of the par- ticipating countries to mitigate disastrous effects of natural hazards, so that they can cope effi- ciently with disasters when they occur. Its more immediate objectives are to promote and facili- tate the adoption of preparedness and prevention measures at the national and regional levels.
Geographically, the project includes all the island states and territories of the Caribbean, together with four Caribbean mainland states (Belize, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname) that have close linguistic and cultural ties with the Caribbean island countries.
Since its beginning, the project has been closely coordinated with the governments, re- gional and international organizations, and fund- ing agencies involved. New organizations (for example, the ITU, Caribbean Meteorological Organization, and World Meteorological Or- ganization) are being included as awareness of the importance of disaster planning to develop- ment activities increases.
Responsibility for monitoring the project’s progress rests with the Project Management
‘PAHO/WHO. the Caribbean Community Secretariat
(CARICOM), the Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA), the European Economic Community
(EEC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the British De- velopment Division (UK/BDD), and the United States Agency for International Development-Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
Committee, which is composed of representa- tives of the participating countries, executing agencies, and funding agencies. Observers are invited from other agencies that provide techni- cal advice or that have programs or interests related to disaster preparedness in the Caribbean. The management committee meets once every six months to review past activities and to ap- prove future work programs, budgets, and staff appointments.
Financial support for the project or assistance in kind has come from many countries and agencies, the largest contributors to date being CIDA, the EEC, and USAID/OFDA.
Project Activities: Phase I
The project formally began its activities in September 198 1 with the appointment of a proj- ect manager and other team members and the subsequent establishment of its headquarters in Antigua. The first phase ran for 18 months, end- ing in March 1983, the overall administration of the project during this period being provided by UNDRO. The staffing of the project during this period included posts for six full-time pro- fessionals (not all these posts were occupied for the full duration of Phase I). In addition, consul- tants in air safety, civil engineering, public awareness, public education, health education, hospital management of mass casualties, seis- mology, and telecommunications were ap- pointed for periods ranging from a few days to several months. Support personnel for the proj- ect included an administrative assistant, three secretaries, and a clerk.
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disaster preparedness planning and prevention activities.
In addition, surveys were conducted in order to establish what facilities and plans existed and what types of project assistance should receive priority.
At first progress was rather slow, but after contacts were made with senior government of- ficials, and once successful workshops and train- ing seminars were held in different countries, the project gained momentum. In all, during Phase I some 23 seminars, workshops, or coun- try-specific training programs were organized or cosponsored on topics that included air safety and crash simulation, air traffic control, disaster preparedness in school curricula, emergency management procedures, essential drugs for dis- asters, first aid, hospital emergency planning, mass casualty management, meteorological as- pects of preparedness, public awareness, water supply after disasters, and the vulnerability of structures. In addition, the project reviewed the needs of each country for emergency telecom- munications equipment, organized the installa- tion and use of emergency radios to link national emergency offices, and provided audio-visual equipment to those offices ready to employ it. Project Activities: Phase II
A second phase of the project, based on new funding commitments, began in April 1983 and is scheduled to run to the middle of 1985. Several important changes took place at the beginning of Phase II. To begin with, in line with the policy of fostering regional self-reliance, the re- sponsibility for administering the project passed from UNDRO to the Caribbean Community Sec- retariat (CARICOM). A separate post was then created for a general preparedness adviser ap- pointed by UNDRO. In addition, a sanitary en- gineer was appointed under PAHO/WHO au- spices,
Activities under Phase II have been intended essentially to broaden and deepen those initiated under Phase I. With an adviser working full-time in general preparedness, this component of the project developed strongly. It currently includes the following three main types of activities:
1) Country visits by the preparedness adviser to identify priorities for national emergency plans and to assist in the development of such plans.
2) Regional, subregional, or national workshops and training seminars. These were held on topics
including the role of the mass media, evacuation and emergency shelter, the role of the security forces in disaster management, mass casualty management, health services organization in disasters, and
emergency operations plans for water supply and en-
vironmental health. These workshops, each with 20 to 40 participants, provided opportunities for persons
responsible for disaster preparedness in the different countries to receive instruction from experts and to exchange ideas and experiences.
3) Development of adequate procedures for post- disaster health needs assessment and training in these procedures.
4) The funding of Caribbean nationals’ attendance at specialized training courses inside and outside the region.
5) Technical and material support to the Govem- ment of Antigua in drought relief.
Prevention activities have included a work- shop for the construction industry on earthquake vulnerability; the preparation of public aware- ness and education material on ways of mitigat- ing risks; a field survey on the suitability of designated hurricane shelters and health care facilities in four countries (Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts-Nevis, and St. Vincent); and a feasibil- ity study for an earthquake monitoring network in Haiti.
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cation and control activities in emergency situ- ations.
The PAHOWHO health adviser of the project visited the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Nether- lands Antilles, St. Vincent and St. Kitts-Nevis to assist in the development of disaster prepared- ness activities within health programs. The first aid component (administered by the League of Red Cross Societies in close cooperation with the British Red Cross) has continued its training activities in this area.
Benefits of a Comprehensive Approach Compared with many other disaster prepared- ness and prevention activities, the Pan-Carib- bean Project has been notably large, long-last- ing, and complex. This complexity can be attri- buted only in part to the large number of sovereign states and territories, executing agen- cies, and funding agencies involved. The real challenges stemmed from bringing together as many as 21 participating countries and ter- ritories, as varied in size as in their respective levels of disaster preparedness, some situated as far apart as 3,000 km, and collectively em- ploying four different languages. In fact, in the early days of the project there were times when it seemed it would have been more appropriate and effective to promote a number of indepen- dent small-scale activities in different parts of the region.
However, as the project matured, the benefits of a long and integrated sequence of activities with Caribbean-wide participation became in- creasingly evident. Most parts of the region are
subject to the same spectrum of natural hazards. The buildings and country infrastructures, being similar in style, have similar vulnerabilities. Thus, the lessons learned from a recent disaster in one country are directly and fully applicable to other countries that may become victims of similar future events.
Likewise, a demonstration in one Caribbean country of the effectiveness of careful predisas- ter planning acts as a source of motivation and encouragement to other countries that are less advanced in this respect. Moreover, the repeated contacts that have taken place between the rela- tively few people working in disaster manage- ment in each of the smaller Caribbean states could only be provided through a regional project of long duration, and these contacts have served to create and maintain a feeling of commitment to a common cause.
By the end of 1984, nearly US$2 million will have been invested in disaster preparedness and prevention through the project. This is a consid- erable sum, yet it remains very small in compari- son to the losses suffered in a single major disas- ter or, more significantly, in comparison to the amount by which these losses can be reduced through good predisaster planning. Altogether, the project has become a significant undertaking in the history of disaster management in the Caribbean, and has pointed the way toward a comprehensive approach to the subject that could be of benefit to other developing regions.
Source: The foregoing is a revised version of the article “Pan-Caribbean: A regional multi-agency project in disaster preparedness and prevention” published in UNDRO News. March-April 1984, pp. 9-13.
CANCER AS A GLOBAL PROBLEM
