CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Presentation by Mr Jeremy Collymore Coordinator, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency for “Reform of the State and Institutional Development: Building National and Regional Systems for Risk Mitigation and Disaster Prevention” Workshop March , 2000 (New Orleans)

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACH Interventions have generally occurred without the definition of overall policy framework

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACH Determined by event driven opportunities influenced by recovery and rehabilitation needs

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACH Nature and Medium of support determined by donor interests and less on country priorities

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM NEW APPROACH To benefit from past and recent experiences suggest the following: Reflection on institutionalization and implications for the nature and framing of policy Capacity for What? Capacitation for Whom?

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM NEW APPROACH Need strategic framework built on consultation and consensus building

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PROCESS ELEMENTS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING Skills, technology, transfer, education, training public information Horizontal Cooperation Technology Transfer

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM CURRENT STATUS Event Driven Mono Hazard Response Focussed Institutional (donors) programme directed Disconnected from development

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM REFORM FOCUS Address above - Specifically What is the policy framework/ environment- society relationship –Committed to removing risks and fail only when uncertainty is high –Vulnerability reduction. Who is vulnerable? How is this generated? –Solution - Application of measuring/monitoring technology structural management strategies

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM CARIBBEAN STRATEGY Define a policy framework for CDM Seek political endorsement for the policy process Incorporate into the agenda of critical institutions of the community

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM CARIBBEAN STRATEGIC Engage major sector players - tourism, agriculture, health, education and utilities Develop a programming framework built on consensus - strategic objectives, indicative results, intervention package Define stakeholders in the above Sociological - human behaviour impact on society functions

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM ASSUMPTIONS: MITIGATION Most vulnerable societies are those unable to reconstruct their livelihoods following a disaster. Become more vulnerable Changes in the frequencies of the event. Do not have to occur for vulnerability to increase

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PAST CHANGE AGENTS : Hurricanes David, Frederick & Volcanic Eruption in St Vincent -Establishment of PCDPPP -Donor Cooperation -Emergency Institutionalization of disaster management

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PAST CHANGE AGENTS 2. Hurricanes Gilbert (1988) and Hugo (1989) -Establishment of CDERA -Inter-governmental cooperation -Enhanced national focal points -Inter-Agency Programming Consultations

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM GOAL OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN Establishment of mechanisms at regional and national levels that allow for the institutionalization of disaster management as a major decision factor in development planning

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM CHANGES NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE GOALS Policy Framework that promotes public service inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial consultations Community based programmes that are empowering

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM CHANGES NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE GOALS Self-reliance oriented programming End-user directed public education and training Introduction and promotion of economic preparedness planning

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE Links with coastal zone management programmes Creating a niche in national sustainable development programmes

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE Use of sustained development councils to promote idea of hazard resistant communities Establishment of programming partnerships with poverty reduction and alleviation programmes

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Rational decision-making can impose institutional restrictions thus improving stability. Also open to a number of manipulative strategies Sayer 1999

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Institutions by definition are the more enduring features of social life Giddens 1984

CDERA The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Institutionalism refers to the embedding of specific practices in a wider context of social relations that cut across the landscape of formal organizations and to the active processes by which individuals in social context constructs their way of thinking and acting P.Huley P112