The Hummingbird Vol. 2 No. 12

Water resource management climate change and sustainable development in the Caribbean

The Caribbean and the post-2015 development agenda

This paper will contend that the post-2015 development agenda presents a major opportunity for Caribbean countries to reverse decades of lagging economic performance and make the transition to balanced, holistic, and people-centred growth and development. The MDGs, while valuable in promoting gains in poverty reduction, health, education, nutrition, and maternal well-being were not tailored to the growth and development needs of the region. This can now be changed by a post-2015 development agenda which goes beyond improving the welfare of citizens by meeting basic needs and enhancing access t…

Regional implementation meeting on access rights and sustainable development in the Caribbean. Workshop on enhancing access to information on climate change, natural disasters and coastal vulnerability: leaving no one behind

This document summarizes the regional implementation meeting on access rights and sustainable development in the Caribbean and the workshop on enhancing access to information on climate change, natural disasters and coastal vulnerability: leaving no one behind held in Rodney’s Bay, Saint Lucia, from 24 to 26 August 2015.…

Caribbean Countries Identify Challenges and Opportunities for Making Progress on Access Rights in Environmental Matters

Representatives from Caribbean countries are meeting on August 24-25 in Saint Lucia to identify opportunities for collective action on the path towards the full implementation of access rights to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters, enshrined in Principle 10 of the Declaration of the 1992 Rio Summit. The meeting is organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Participants include rep…

Países del Caribe identifican desafíos y oportunidades para avanzar en los derechos de acceso en materias ambientales

Representantes de los países del Caribe se reúnen este 24 y 25 de agosto en Santa Lucía para identificar oportunidades de acción conjunta en el camino para la implementación cabal de los derechos de acceso a la información, participación y justicia ambientales, consagrados en el Principio 10 de la Declaración de la Cumbre de Río de 1992. La reunión es organizada por la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA), la Organización de Estados del Caribe Oriental (OECS, según sus siglas en inglés) y el World Resource…

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.8

ECLAC Executive Secretary opens High Level Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago

“There is no question that the Caribbean is shouldering an unsustainable debt burden which compromises the capacity of the economies for sustained growth and restricts the options available to governments to introduce important social and welfare programmes” the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, said via video conference in opening the 17th meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) on 26 June, during which Ministers and high-level Government representatives from the…

ECLAC Trains Officials of the Region in Assessment of Disasters

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), through its Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, is strengthening the capacity of specialists and officials of Latin American and Caribbean countries to assess the damages and losses caused by disasters, with activities in Peru, Costa Rica and Saint Vicent and The Granadines. In the case of Peru, the training session in Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) was conducted in Cusco from 16 to 19 June at the request of the National Center for Estimation, Prevention and Disaster Risk Reduction. This course served as the first …

Una aproximación bayesiana a la medición de la vulnerabilidad poblacional a desastres naturales: estudio de caso para el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia

En este artículo se explica el empleo de un enfoque bayesiano para medir la vulnerabilidad de una población a desastres naturales utilizando información climática, censal y administrativa. La aproximación bayesiana permite clasificar las regiones de acuerdo con su vulnerabilidad e identificar los factores físicos y socioeconómicos que hacen que una población sea más o menos vulnerable a una amenaza específica. Estos resultados son útiles para formular políticas de prevención de riesgos focalizadas en las regiones más vulnerables y en función de las características socioeconómicas más important…

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.4

La estimación de los efectos de los desastres en América Latina, 1972-2010

Los objetivos de este trabajo son revisar la experiencia de CEPAL en la estimación de impacto económico y social de los desastres naturales. Para ello se describe la base de datos originada a partir de los reportes de estimación y se determinan patrones de daños y pérdidas sectoriales de los diversos tipos de eventos.…

Assessment of strategies for linking the damage and loss assessment methodology to the post-disaster needs assessment

This report was prepared at the request of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) with support from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) to assess strategies for linking the ECLAC Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) Methology to the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). Each metholodolgy was individually outlined and their use in the Caribbean context was explored in detail to set the framework or lens through which their linking would be viewed. Other methologies that are used within the recovery process were identified and outli…

Review of ECLAC damage and loss assessments in the Caribbean

Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin American and Caribbean countries are exposed to extreme natural events that can unleash disasters, depending on the vulnerabilities of each. The sectors most at risk are those with high social vulnerability.…

Desastres en América Latina y el Caribe

Los países de América Latina y el Caribe están expuestos a eventos naturales extremos que pueden desencadenar desastres, según las condiciones de vulnerabilidad de cada uno. Los sectores de mayor riesgo son aquellos con alta vulnerabilidad social.…

La CEPAL lanza nueva edición de manual para la evaluación de desastres

(24 de abril, 2014) La Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) lanzó hoy en Jamaica la tercera edición del Manual para la Evaluación de Desastres en el que se actualiza la metodología establecida por este organismo regional de Naciones Unidas, que desde 1972 ha participado en la estimación de daños de más de 90 catástrofes en la región. La presentación del manual tuvo lugar en Kingston, capital de Jamaica, y contó con la presencia de la Secretaria Ejecutiva de la CEPAL, Alicia Bárcena, y de la Directora de la Subsede Regional de esta Comisión para el Caribe, Diane Quarless, …

Handbook for disaster assessment

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been a pioneer in the field of disaster assessment and in the development and dissemination of a disaster assessment methodology. Its approach involves estimating the effects of a disaster on assets (damage) and economic flows (losses and additional costs) and takes account of the economic, social and environmental impacts of disasters. ECLAC studies in this area respond to the need to estimate the financial costs of a disaster with a view to determining the amount of sector-specific funding needed for recovery and reconst…

Autoridades y expertos analizaron la evaluación de desastres naturales en los países del Caribe

Autoridades y expertos regionales analizaron los resultados de las evaluaciones hechas por los gobiernos caribeños para medir el impacto de los desastres naturales ocurridos en sus países entre 2006 y 2013. El debate se realizó entre el 25 y el 26 de febrero en Castries, Santa Lucía. Al encuentro, que organizaron de forma conjunta la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) y el Mecanismo de Seguro de Riesgo para Catástrofes en el Caribe (CCRIF, por su sigla en inglés), asistieron representantes de ministerios de Planificación y Desarrollo de los países del Car…

Information and communication technologies for disaster risk management in the Caribbean

This paper examines the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for disaster risk management (DRM) with a specific focus on the Caribbean. The study included the review of literature and case studies, as well the administration of a survey instrument that collected the feedback of 13 regional national DRM agencies. Analysis of the survey suggests that while subregional disaster management agencies have fairly good access to technology infrastructure and enjoy an information sharing culture, challenges exist with regard to the information governance frameworks as well as the …