Caribbean: Understanding Risk Caribbean Conference

Context and objectives

Understanding Risk (UR) is a global community of disaster risk management (DRM) practitioners that exchange knowledge, collaborate, and share best practices in the field of disaster risk assessment. Every two years, GFDRR convenes the UR community at global forums, and the UR community also holds regional events that focus on regional issues and capacity building.

From May 27 – June 1, 2019, the UR Caribbean Conference took place in Barbados. The UR Caribbean Conference advanced knowledge sharing and collaboration about disaster risk identification.

Main activities and results

The funding from the ACP-EU NDRR Program was used for, among others, logistics, travel costs of Caribbean representatives, and consultant services. During the conference, projects funded by the ACP-EU NDRR Program in the Caribbean were showcased and their findings were disseminated.

The conference gathered over 500 delegates from more than 20 Caribbean countries with sessions and live demonstrations conducted by institutions and organizations such as the University of the West Indies, Harvard University, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the UNDRR. The conference convened 24 technical sessions and 15 workshops and trainings, with a focus on highlighting relevant and innovative projects and initiatives in the Caribbean which can help countries use risk information to make informed decisions.

Partnerships and coordination

The UR Caribbean Conference was organized in partnership with the European Union, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Cave Hill Campus. The conference was hosted by the Government of Barbados.

Useful links

More information about the conference can be found at https://understandrisk.org/event/urcaribbean/.

All the videos related to the event are accessible at https://bit.ly/2JeB6JG.

A Feature story on the event is accessible at https://bit.ly/3222J16.