Port of Spain, 16 March 2000

In accordance with the results of the 4th Meeting of the Ministerial Council, which took place in Panama City, Panama, in December 1999, the first meeting of the Executive Board of the Special Committee on Natural Disasters was convened at the ACS Headquarters in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on March 16, 2000. The meeting was chaired by the Hon. Hector Gonzalez Urrutia, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of El Salvador. Mr Cecil P. Shilingford, Assistant Coordinator in the Office of Disaster Management in the Ministry of Works of Dominica acted as Vice Chairman. The Hon. Susanne Camelia-Romer, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands Antilles, acted as Rapporteur of the meeting. Delegations from Colombia, Cuba, France and Mexico also participated in the meeting, as well as representatives from CDERA and CEPREDENAC and Dr Myron Chin, consultant.

Introductory remarks were made by the Secretary General of the Association, Dr Norman Paul Girvan, ACS Director Mr Mario Estrada Cuevas and the Chairman of the meeting. The remarks outlined the importance of the subject of natural disasters and its effects on the wider Caribbean region as well as the urgency to take concerted action with regard to prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response measures. The decision by the Ministerial Council in Panama to elevate the former Special Group on Natural Disasters to a full-fledged Special Committee was considered to be very positive.

The meeting adopted the agenda as proposed by the Secretariat and included a proposal of the delegation of the Netherlands Antilles to be allowed to make a short presentation under agenda item "new strategic action". A document which the Secretariat received from the Chairman of the Special Fund, Mr Marco Alcazar, of Mexico was also identified to be discussed during said agenda item.

On behalf of the Secretariat, Mr Mario Estrada Cuevas provided the meeting with background information on the subject of natural disasters within the ACS. In Decision 1/95 the issue of natural disasters had first been identified as one of the priorities of the ACS activities. At the request of the Ministerial Council existing regional organisations with expertise on natural disasters formulated an outline, which eventually resulted (Decision 3/96) in the establishment of a Special Group on Natural Disasters within the Special Committee on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment. Technical meetings of the Special Group took place in 1996 in Jamaica, in 1997 in Panama, in 1998 in the Dominican Republic and in 1999 in Guadeloupe.

The most important result of the work of the Special Group consisted of a multilateral agreement, which was signed by Ministers of Foreign Affairs of most ACS countries during the Second Summit of Heads of State and Government in the Dominican Republic in April 1999. The Secretariat informed the meeting that at present, Colombia as depositary state of the ACS, had not yet received any instrument of ratification of the natural disasters agreement, which should be of concern to the ACS members in light of a diligent follow-up/execution of the regional co-operation policy intentions.

It was recalled that the main purpose of the Agreement is to promote cooperation among the Member States and Associate Members of the Association as well as to promote the interaction of the ACS membership with relevant organisations, both at the regional level (CDERA and CEPREDENAC) as well as at the international level (e.g. UN and Red Cross). Other important aspects are the identification of vulnerable areas, prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, identification of financial resources and the exchange of information through organisations such as CRID.

The meeting was informed that at the 4th Meeting of the Ministerial Council in Panama in December 1999, it was noted with concern that the participation of the ACS membership at the fourth meeting of the Special Group, which took place in November 1999 in Guadeloupe, was limited. However, the high level of participation as well as the participation of non Executive Board members in this meeting of the Executive Board was seen as a positive development.

The Secretariat noted the importance of the development of project proposals which meet the criteria set out by the Special Fund. It was - among other matters - noted that any ACS project should benefit a minimum of 5 countries. As a result of this, the Government of Nicaragua withdrew its proposed project. Also the project related to the "International Decade on Natural Disasters Reductions" has no further relevance, as the decade has already passed. This means that the number of projects has been reduced to 9 (nine).

With regard to the Special Fund, the meeting was informed that the Chairman of the Special Fund requested to be represented at this meeting of the Executive Board by the Ambassador of Mexico in Port of Spain, H.E. Isabel Tellez de Ortega. The Ambassador indicated to the meeting that she had received a document from the Chairman of the Special Fund with some general remarks on funding of projects, which she would make available to the Chairman of the Special Committee on Natural Disasters. It was decided to distribute the document and that it be discussed under agenda item "new strategic action".

With respect to the initiative of an ACS questionnaire on natural disasters, it was noted that notwithstanding the poor response by ACS countries, the necessary information was available through the Centro Regional sobre Informacion de Desastres (CRID) with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica. This approach would also limit the duplication of efforts substantially.

Consultant Dr Myron Chin made a presentation to the meeting in which he elaborated among other matters, on actual effects of natural disasters on the region, organisations which are already active in this field and the scope and frequency of disasters. He divided the project proposals in three categories: three projects in the category of "Prevention and Mitigation", four projects in the category of "Preparedness" and the last four projects in the category of "Response, Warning and others". Dr Chin proceeded to provide the meeting with more detailed information on the eleven presented projects.

In the follow-up discussion, the issues of the economic model to assess natural disaster damages - as developed by ECLAC - and the importance of the enforcement of building codes were raised. With regard to the former, Dr Chin promised to request of ECLAC a copy of the study/model and make this available to the ACS membership. In respect of the latter, Dr Chin agreed with the meeting that public education is crucial in the process of enforcing building codes and its importance in relation to mitigation of natural disasters.

In relation to the currently proposed project proposals, the Secretary General elaborated on the communication received from the Chairman of the Special Fund, Mr Marco Alcazar of Mexico. His remarks drew attention to the work programmes of existing organisations, which are active in the field of natural disasters, both within the UN (CRID) as well as in the Rio Group. Subsequently, the Chairman of the Special Fund pleaded in his letter for an extra effort to be made to prevent the duplication of efforts. In this regard it was pointed out by the Secretariat that the CRID-database is indeed already an integral part of the regional mechanism on natural disasters and is a close partner of the ACS in projects and other efforts related to the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters.

The Chairman of the Executive Board presented his thoughts on the importance of the development of quality norms and standards, which will better prepare the region to limit the human and financial damage caused by natural disasters. He suggested that the areas of prevention and mitigation, education and concrete action such as workshops and seminars, be proposed to the Special Committee to be made one of the main priorities within the work programme of the Committee in the year 2000.

The meeting discussed the need for more structure in the approach of the theme of natural disasters within the ACS. Duplication of efforts, as well as the broad criteria that are applied to the selection of projects were found to be two themes which need further refinement. The meeting was of the opinion that a refined methodology would lead to more concrete activities in the field of natural disasters.

The meeting agreed that a reflection group – consisting of the Secretary General, the ACS Director for Natural Disasters, CDERA, CEPREDENAC and the Netherlands Antilles - would meet to outline a more concrete methodology on the proposal of projects. These technical recommendations will then be dealt with at the level of the Executive Board, the Special Committee and eventually the Ministerial Council. The purpose of this initiative is to increase order and structure in the approach of the subject of natural disasters. Also, the methodology to be developed for the Special Committees on Natural Disasters should be similar to the methodology of the other Special Committees.

The Secretariat informed the meeting that the Special Fund is a facilitating entity between the Special Committees and donor countries and agencies. Two manuals have been adopted by the Ministerial Council with regard to the format and process of project proposals. It is however the prerogative of the Special Committee on Natural Disasters to refine the criteria and decide which projects will be forwarded to the Special Fund. The meeting was also informed that the current project proposals have not yet been prioritised. They will therefore have to be reconsidered after the refined criteria have been adopted. The result of this analysis will then be presented to the Special Fund.

The meeting agreed that the approach to be taken by the Special Committee should be at two levels: utilising the work that has been done in the past years in the Special Group and simultaneously developing a further refinement of the methodology. For example, the project proposal "Updating Wind and Earthquake Codes in the various ACS countries and putting them on the Internet an/or CD-roms" has a relatively high level of development, including negotiations/discussions with a possible donor country (Italy) and a possible administrative agency (IDB). It is therefore important to continue this effort and realise further progress in this project, while at the same time develop more precise criteria for the development of other project proposals.

The meeting discussed the priority areas, which at an earlier stage were adopted by the Ministerial Council. Document ACS/2000/BOARD.I/ND/INF 002 should be regarded as an informative document/background information.

The meeting agreed that the work done by the Executive Board with regard to the identification and, more specifically, the refinement of priority areas is of a preparatory nature. The Special Committee will subsequently decide on concrete recommendations, which will eventually be presented to the Ministerial Council.

The meeting was presented with a proposal by the delegation of the Netherlands Antilles for a new approach for the activities in the Special Committee on Natural Disasters. The proposal consisted of the following steps:

Disaster preparedness checklist (capability assessment);

Results to be put in a matrix;

Prioritise products/activity plan;

Policy Plan ACS (for the next 5 years);

Policy Plan subregional level;

Policy Plan national level;

Project management structure under political supervision (steering committee);

The Secretary General indicated that the proposal was in accordance with the recommendation of the reflection group and stressed the importance of flexibility of the steps. In this regard, it was specifically agreed that the steps of checklist, matrix and inventory be carried out and that decisions on further steps would be taken at a later stage.

The Chairman expressed hope that the ACS membership would support this inventories-prioritisation project and stressed the importance of presenting this project to the Special Committee meeting, which would be convened within 6 months. As decided before, he also reminded the meeting that the Special Committee on Natural Disasters would be active on two fronts: projects in which progress has already been made (including concrete financial options), will be continued and at the same time the Committee will implement the newly adopted approach of inventories and subsequent prioritisation.

The delegation of Mexico pointed out that a proper financial preparation is essential to determine the success rate of the adopted project proposal, as all projects which involve ACS-funds have to be dealt with in the appropriate bodies within the ACS (Special Committee on Budget and Administration and Ministerial Council).

The meeting discussed the availability of model checklists to be used in the project and concluded that the Secretariat – assisted by National Disaster Coordination Offices of member countries - would undertake an analysis of existing checklists and make the necessary modifications to present a document that addresses the specific needs of the Wider Caribbean Region. It was also agreed that the development of a regional ACS policy plan should take the existing policy plans of the sub-regions into account. In this regard it should be noted that a policy plan for Central America has been developed by CEPREDENAC and a similar plan for CARICOM countries is being developed by CDERA.

The meeting agreed to three points of immediate action, which will be coordinated by the Secretariat and implemented in close cooperation with the National Disaster Coordination Offices of Cuba, the Netherlands Antilles and representatives of CDERA. The points of action are:

designing of checklist;

designing of matrix;

filling in of checklists.

The representative of CDERA indicated its support to the meeting for the inventories-prioritisation project and offered to suggest persons who could be available to the Secretary General for two to three months to assist with the project preparation. He also informed the meeting of an existing "Preparedness Audit Document" which could assist in the process of project preparation.

In light of time constraints, it was agreed that with some limited ACS funds, the project preparation would be started as soon as possible and that preliminary action would be taken to inform donor agencies and countries of the adopted approach.

The meeting reached consensus on the following five points, which were developed by the reflection group:

To take into account decisions on Natural Disasters made by the Ministerial Council during its meetings in 1995, 1996, 1997 and during the II Summit of Heads of State and Government, especially with regard to:

The need to evaluate existing programmes and agencies, strengths, weaknesses and gaps at the national, sub-regional and regional level.

The priority areas identified in the ACS Agreement on Regional Co-operation on Natural Disasters.

To revise the existing project proposals by a Technical Working Group after evaluation and recommendations on priority areas for new action have been established. The projects which will continue are the Databank Project (project no. …) and the Updating Wind and Earthquake Codes Project (project no. 2).

In order for the above to be undertaken, each Member Country will need to respond to an inventory list regarding their capabilities, weaknesses, strengths as well as ongoing projects.

It was also suggested that for qualification as an ACS project, the proposed activity should involve cooperation among all the major geographic areas, i.e. the Eastern Caribbean, the Middle Caribbean, Central America and the G-3 countries.

It was suggested to have a Disaster Coordination Officer in the Secretariat to deal with the above matters.

The meeting also specifically agreed to the proposal of ACS Director Ricardo Vargas Taylor to improve the communication with regional agencies, with the purpose of better coordination with regard to regional natural disaster activities.

The presentations by CDERA and CEPREDENAC will be added to the report.

The meeting agreed that the First Meeting of the Special Committee would be convened in the week of July 10, 2000 and would most probably be two days of duration. The venue of the meeting will be decided at a later stage.

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