Approximately 20 representatives from various communities and government agencies were provided last week with the knowledge and skills needed to make assessments following a disaster.

The individuals were involved in a three-day damage assessment and needs analysis workshop facilitated by Cecil Shillingford, a Consultant with USAID’s Office of Foreign Development Assistance (ODFA).

Thirty-two countries* will participate in a full-scale tsunami alert exercise in the Caribbean on 20 March 2013. The goal is to test the reaction capacity in countries of the Caribbean and adjacent regions, including the East Coast of Canada and the United States, the Gulf of Mexico and Bermuda. The exercise was organized under the auspices of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

In this issue

• Memorandum of Understanding with UWI-SRC

• World Bank Implementation Completion and Results Report on CCRIF

• Work Programmes with Regional Organisations

• CCRIF Technical Assistance Programme

José Graziano da Silva participa de la Cumbre CELAC-UE, que se realiza en Santiago de Chile, desde el 26 al 28 de enero, reuniendo a 60 países de América Latina y el Caribe y de la UE

St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, 3 January 2013 (PAHO/WHO) - A joint mission of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) visited Antigua and Barbados recently to support a new initiative to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in the country over the next two years.

CODRINGTON, Barbuda, Nov 30 2012 (IPS) - Local scientists are warning the tiny 62-square-mile island of Barbuda is becoming one of the most vulnerable spots on earth to the consequences of climate change.

“We are small, we are flat…and if the climate change predictions come true, especially with respect to sea level rise, you are looking at potentially a third of the island being not available for the sort of things we are using it for right now,” marine biologist John Mussington told IPS.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, November 9, 2012 – The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of The University of the West Indies have entered into a partnership to enhance the Accelerometric Network in the Eastern Caribbean and Jamaica in order to strengthen the evaluation and mitigation of seismic risk across the region.

By Desmond Brown

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Sep 26 2012 (IPS) - Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas remembers how quiet – even uneventful – this tiny twin-island federation was for the first four decades of his life.

But over the past 10 years, St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as the rest of the Caribbean, have seen radical climatic shifts. There is no question in Douglas’s mind that these changes are the direct results of climate change.

HIGHLIGHTS:

 HURRICANE SEASON: Tropical Storm Isaac caused flooding and landslides leaving 8 dead.

 VENEZUELA: More than 2,135 people were evacuated in the state of Sucre due to rains

 EL SALVADOR: A 6.7 magnitude earthquake caused alarm. No damage was reported