Capacity building in participatory approaches for hydro-climatic Disaster Risk Management in the Caribbean

Abstract

The participatory approach to Disaster Risk Management (DRM) considers socio-economic factors and facilitates the incorporation of local and indigenous knowledge into management plans while offering an opportunity to all resource users to have an input. Caribbean WaterNet/Cap-Net UNDP, Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), and the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies (FFA, UWI) conducted a series of regional training of trainers’ workshops in Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management and Drought Risk Management to build regional capacity in this approach. The trainings took place over two years in six (6) Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Over 150 persons from a range of sectors relevant to water resource management participated and contributed. The workshop gathered information on sectoral impacts, potential mitigation measures and challenges of hydro-climatic hazards. Capacity building and knowledge transfer was evaluated at two stages; at the end of the last day of training and 6 months after, as part of a monitoring and evaluation assessment. Both the initial and 6-month evaluations revealed significant knowledge transfer and subsequent institutional and policy impacts. Initial evaluation indicated 99% participant satisfaction with both training content and structure. In the six-month evaluation, 85% of participants indicated that the knowledge gained was used to improve their work performance and, in some cases, contributed to changes in institutional policy and frameworks.