In an effort to increase technical cooperation with its host country, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean recently co-organized with the Office for Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) a multi-sectoral disaster assessment training session for agencies in Trinidad and Tobago.

ECLAC Caribbean recognizes that there are different sectors involved in disaster assessment, and this training is part of the continuing series of ECLAC training sessions aimed at strengthening the ability of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to assess damage and loss caused by disasters. Participants who benefitted from this particular e training were not only from disaster preparedness agencies, but also from the health, agriculture, public utilities, telecommunications, education, planning and tourism sectors.

An important aspect of this disaster assessment package for Trinidad was to impart information on the different types of disasters, as ECLAC sought to encourage the participants to develop a broad approach on how to understand a disaster.

During the training, which took place from 5-7 October at the ECLAC Port of Spain office, it was acknowledged that all sectors have a role to play when it comes to carrying out disaster assessment, since there are more issues to consider beyond just the immediate physical damage.

The facilitators of this training were ECLAC’s Sustainable Development and Disaster Unit Coordinator Omar Bello, Associate Environment Affairs Officer Leda Peralta, and Population Affairs Officer Francis Jones.