Participants ’ response to the proposal was heartening, given the enthusiastic inputs recommending that the Conference address matters concerning development and risk reduction policies and the need for a Regional Fund for disaster management to be created, underscoring that said fund must not be focussed on reconstruction, but rather on risk reduction.

In addition, it was agreed that the Conference should consider the correlation between poverty and natural disasters, analysing the eradication of poverty and sustainable development in the framework of the international agenda on the subject. It was also suggested that the issue of the transfer of risks in terms of costs, as well as that on insurance be included in the Plan of Action for the Conference. It was further agreed, perhaps for the first time in this Association’s history, that a gender perspective be included in the discussion and outcome.

This Conference is also timely, given that the Latin American and Caribbean Region lags behind the rest of the world in our response to the mandates emanating out of Hyogo, as both Asia and Africa have already had their regional meetings on the implementation of that outcome.

The Conference, to be comprised by the Ministers responsible for civil defence/protection, as well as regional and international organisations, will discuss a plan of actions at national, regional and international levels, to be ultimately adopted by governments. As in the Shakespeare’s quote above, we must take responsibility for our own security regionally, nationally and at the community level, as no one else will (nor should) do it for us.

We read with some bafflement in the Guardian of 23 rd May that, many months after Katrina’s awe-inspiring landfall, 60% of the 1,725 coastal residents surveyed in the US gulf region have no disaster plan, whilst 68% have no hurricane survival kit and 13% have stated their unwillingness to evacuate if ordered. One cannot help but wonder what a similar poll would glean from our region. Sorry, but no Nobel Prize for guessing.

The Conference, to be financed almost entirely by external donors, would also examine the possibilities for establishing regional mechanisms in the framework of the Agreement amongst ACS Members for Regional Co-operation in the Area of Natural Disasters, the Hyogo Framework for Action, the Kingston Declaration and the UN´s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, amongst others.

Luis Carpio is the Director of Transport and Natural Disasters of the Association of Caribbean States. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Comments and reactions can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org

July 6, 2006