EU disaster preparednes and prevention plan for the Caribbean

The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), under Commissioner Poul Nielson, has granted €3 million to finance a natural disaster preparedness and prevention plan for the Caribbean region, involving 15 ACP States signatory to the Cotonou Agreement, seven overseas territories and Cuba. The action plan is part of the wider DIPECHO (Disaster Preparedness) programme launched by ECHO in 1997 to fund training, capacity-building, awareness-raising and early-warning projects and organize relief services in five areas of the world particularly at risk of natural disaster.

This, the third Caribbean regional plan, focuses on flooding as one of the commonest yet most devastating types of disaster to hit the region, though in Cuba the strategy extends to earthquake preparedness as well. The plan provides essentially for three types of measure: local capacity building; coordinating, compiling and disseminating information; and micro-projects. Activities will be carried out on a regional, national and local scale and are designed to meet the needs of the individual communities most at risk. A total of 15 projects involving 12 local partners will run for 12 months.

The first €2.2 million twelve-month disaster preparedness plan for the Caribbean was approved in 1998; the second, worth €1.675 million, was adopted in 2000.

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