According to NEMA Coordinator, Carl Herbert, a special workshop has been organized for Thursday 20th October at the Half Way Tree Community Centre, as the start of a process to develop a community based Disaster Risk Management Benchmarking Tool, (BTool), to be used by local communities.
A similar BTool, said Herbert, was created about four years ago by the OECS to be used at the national level and the new effort is to create a modified version for local communities.
The project is being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Mr. Herbert said that officers with responsibility for community disaster management in member states of the OECS met in Anguilla earlier this year to discuss related matters and St. Kitts and Nevis was represented by Mrs. Telca Wallace, the NEMA Districts Coordinator.
The objectives of the workshop are:
- To train residents and stakeholders in how to administer the community based BTool.
- To evaluate the ease at which to Tool may be self-administered and managed.
- Discuss a sustainability plan for the use and management of the Tool.
About thirty (30) individuals from within the district are expected to attend the training. The facilitator will be Mr. Jacob Opadeyi of the UWI, St. Augustine Campus, who was instrumental in the development of the BTool in 2007.
It was back in May 2010, that the OECS through its Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) launched a Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management Project in the OECS Countries.