Fifteen representatives at the policy-making level began meeting on Friday to discuss a Disaster Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis (DANA) system for Guyana.
The meeting will be guided by the recommendations submitted from a multi-stakeholder workshop organised by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) on disaster damage assessment and needs analysis and an integrated web-based management platform.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release, the CDC is tasked with ensuring that there is a national system in place to cope with multi-hazard impacts within the framework of comprehensive disaster management.
GINA said the three-day workshop which started on Tuesday, aimed to upgrade the national disaster management system, strengthen response mechanisms, assist in directing initial response activities and guide the recovery and rehabilitation process. At Tuesday’s session, CDC Director General Colonel Chabilall Ramsarup referred to the 2005 flood and its devastating effect as a graphic example of the impact of a natural disaster that affected a third of the country’s population and caused damage equivalent to 60% country’s GDP. Ramsarup said while he was proud of the CDC’s response capacity during that period, he is optimistic about the scientific approach the new DANA process will provide, to strengthen future damage and needs assessment endeavours. He said at the national and local level the CDC has made headway in its works in areas of communications systems stren-gthening, search and rescue, community leader training and Information Communi-cation Technology.
According to GINA, the workshop is part of a four-year project to strengthen the country’s capacity to reduce disaster risks. It is a partnership effort of the CDC, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Caribbean Development Bank. The US$2M project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Didier Trebucq said the workshop was important in the context of the many threats that natural disasters pose to Caribbean economies.
He noted that from June 2008 to June 2009, 343 disasters occurred, claiming about 14,000 lives and causing damage in excess of US$57M. Floods, droughts, earthquakes and storms were just a few of the well-known disasters.
DANA Consultant Paul Saunders and representatives from government, private sector agencies and civil society also attended the sessions. The workshops closed Thursday at the Centre for Information Technology at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, where participants were to have received hands-on training on the Integrated Web-based Disaster Management Plat-form that the CDC developed to enhance coordination during an emergency or disaster.
