The Caribbean region is second only to Asia in terms of incidence of natural disasters. In 2004 alone, major natural disasters struck seven Caribbean countries, causing upwards of US$2 billion in property damage and direct losses. In the face of these harsh realities, public awareness of the need to intensify efforts to mitigate and manage the impacts of natural disasters has been on the rise.

In response to this long-recognised need for multidisciplinary training, research and technical expertise in disaster management and risk mitigation in Caribbean communities, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has established the Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Centre will complement the work of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), the umbrella organisation comprising sixteen national disaster agencies in the region. A Director for the Centre has been identified and is expected to assume duties in the upcoming year. Until then, Professor Wayne Hunte, Pro Vice Chancellor, Research, is overseeing the activities of the Centre.

The Centre has its genesis in the UWI Hurricane Relief Task Force. When Vice Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris assumed office on October 1, 2004—two weeks after Hurricane Ivan’s passage through the Caribbean—one of his first actions was to assemble a Hurricane Relief Task Force. Staff throughout the University was canvassed to determine their area of expertise in the context of disaster management and mitigation and their willingness to participate in the work of the Task Force. The UWI was therefore able to respond rapidly and effectively, by lending technical assistance to the worst affected island, Grenada.

However, the issue of disaster management and mitigation goes far beyond the annual challenge of the hurricane season. The Caribbean region also has to contend with volcanic eruptions (such as the continuing ‘seething’ of the Soufreire Volcano in Montserrat), the probability of a ‘Kick-em-Jenny’ eruption generating tsunamis in the Caribbean Sea, incidents of earthquakes and frequent severe flooding events across the region.

Furthermore, the potential of natural disasters to retard Caribbean development goes beyond the direct costs of damage to the local environment, communities and infrastructure. Tourism, as the single largest contributor to gross domestic product in the Caribbean, is extremely vulnerable to such events and the mere threat of natural hazards’ impacts can seriously constrain tourism development.
With so much at stake, the Task Force was conceived as a database of all Disaster Management technical expertise resident at The UWI. The database, currently comprising more than 100 names, spans the gamut of relevant expertise, from Air Quality and Agriculture through Health and Housing to Telecommunications and Waste Management. Professor Wayne Hunte, who spearheaded the compilation of the database, remarked that there was clearly a large number of persons at The UWI with both the expertise and desire to become involved in disaster mitigation in the region. The establishment of the Centre provides an institutional mechanism for harnessing this capacity at the UWI and using it to develop and implement training, research, advisory and outreach services to enhance disaster mitigation and management in the Caribbean region.

This development was welcomed by those present at the launch of the Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction on July 26, 2006, including Executive Director of CDERA, Dr. Jeffrey Collymore, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Representative in Jamaica, Mr. Juan Carlos Espinola and Pro Vice Chancellor Hunte. Vice Chancellor Harris declared that this would become yet another UWI Centre of Excellence that responds to the specific needs of its stakeholders by providing the training and certification required by the Caribbean Disaster Management community.

The focus of the Centre will therefore be both preventive—in the provision of technical, advisory and consultancy services to mitigate the risks of disasters—and palliative, in the rapid mobilisation of human resource capacity within the University, for in situ assistance and project implementation both before and after disasters. Initial funding for the Centre was provided by the UNDP, with matching funds from Caribbean governments. However, there is urgent need for ongoing assistance to enable the Centre to develop and deliver postgraduate programmes in Disaster Mitigation and Prevention.