The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has completed two community meetings and a national stakeholder consultation on the Caribbean Community Risk Information Tool (CCRIT) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
More than 120 residents from the two villages of Colonarie and Calliaqua attended the meetings and consultations on August 22nd and 23rd, 2023.
CCRIT is a tool that was created to meet the demand for evidence-based information that would help decision makers to objectively pick communities for interventions to strengthen their resilience.
The CCRIT permits the identification of potential hazards and associated socioeconomic vulnerabilities that can affect the relevant communities by using quantitative geospatial data and qualitative community socio-demographic data. It can also help in determining the causes of disasters in the research area. The CCRIT can thus assist in identifying the most vulnerable communities in the country and in identifying underlying disaster risk drivers such as hazard exposure, socioeconomic weaknesses, and coping capacity measures.
Prior to the meetings, the University of the West Indies (UWI) was commissioned to provide consulting services for the assessment and refinement of the CCRIT, as well as its application in CDEMA Participating States. The project “Support to the Advancement of Comprehensive Disaster Management in CDEMA Participating States” is supported by the Norwegian government.
The data and information acquired in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be utilized to identify, categorize, rank, and prioritize the elements that contribute to disaster risks in specific areas, as well as to aid in the implementation of the CCRIT’s National Action Plan.
