Jamaica to Benefit from Phase Two of Regional Climate Change Project

Jamaica’s ability to effectively respond to the effects of climate change and natural disasters is expected to be boosted through the implementation of phase two of the $75.6 million (€512,000) Mainstreaming Climate Change into Disaster Management (CCDM II) Project.

The country is among the 18 regional Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) member states slated to benefit from the 30-month project, which commenced in December 2012, and is being financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

Being carried out locally by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the project aims to strengthen member countries’ resilience and response to the effects of climate change and natural disasters, through the institution of practical planning adaptation interventions at the national and community levels.

As part of Jamaica’s preparations, ODPEM in collaboration with CDEMA is currently staging a two-day climate smart workshop at the Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston.

The workshop, which commenced on Wednesday, August 13, is being attended by nearly 30 representatives from various government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations.

Speaking at Wednesday’s opening ceremony, CDEMA’s Project Manager, Kerry-Ann Thompson, said the workshop aims to: heighten the participants’ awareness of climate change and its impacts; assist in identifying alternative adaptation options for disaster-risk reduction nationally and sectorally; and prioritise and sequence viable adaptation options into entry points and actions that build on the current comprehensive disaster management country work programme framework for disaster risk reduction.

A key objective of the two-day workshop is to integrate climate change considerations into a draft climate-smart Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) country work programme for Jamaica.

The process, also referred to as ‘climate smarting’, will be aided through the use of a Guidance Tool (G-Tool), which, is a manual designed for this purpose.

“This G-Tool manual is actually an output of the first phase of CCDM, and we are using it to deliver the first expected result of the project, which is institutional capacity (strengthening) in the CDEMA participating states, through the climate smarting of CDM country work programmes,” the Project Manager said

In his remarks at the opening, ODPEM’s Acting Director General, Richard Thompson, expressed the hope that the workshop will be “informative and engaging”, and that consensus will resonate among the participants “as to how to frame our plans and policies in order to reflect proper risk reduction…and…climate change processes.”

For her part, Director of Urban and Regional Planning, Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, Marsha Henry-Martin, who represented Acting Permanent Secretary, Dianne Jennings, said deliberations at the workshop are expected to have “far-reaching implications” for disaster risk management in Jamaica.

“This preparatory stage of the development process is vitally important as it truly facilitates far reaching collaboration between our overseas-based development partners and our domestic stakeholders at the policy level…thus truly giving us the opportunity to bring informed leadership to the national conversation we must have about the necessity and implications of sound disaster mitigation and risk reduction including climate change adaptation,” Mrs. Henry-Martin said.

The workshop is slated to conclude on Thursday, August 14.

The CDM strategy, which is described as a road map for climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation, was initially developed in 2001 following broad-based multi-sectoral consultations in all 18 CDEMA states. It was subsequently refined and adopted by CDEMA in 2007, as the standard blueprint to climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation and risk reduction in the region.