Start Date : 17 Sept 02   End Date : 19 Sept 02 Location: Havana, Cuba

The Disaster Management Programme of UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with UN-ISDR, held a regional consultation on Local Management and Disaster Reduction in the Caribbean Region in September 2002 with a number of Central American and Caribbean states, namely Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Cuba. The main objective of the consultation was to develop disaster mitigation and management capacity for local governments at municipality level. By December 2003 the final document was produced, in collaboration with the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, and recommendations were prepared. 

The project programme, conceived as an initial step in the implementation of a regional programme to strengthen capacities for risk reduction at the local level as an integral part of human settlements management in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean basin, was achieved and a strategy for a two-year approach in consolidating the process by building the needed structures was defined with objectives and expected outputs. Identification of potential donors has been undertaken, and the fund-raising will commence in early 2004.

The formulated methodology and strategy for Regional Consultations, based on the success of the Cuban experience, was introduced in Mozambique during the first DMP mission in March 2003. The objective is to develop a programme for technical support and cooperation with municipalities for the formulation of disaster reduction plans as part of overall municipal management. The process is ongoing, and it is anticipated that UN-HABITAT will replicate the local consultation among the selected municipalities in Mozambique in the biennium 2004-2005, subject to funding availability. The same strategy will be applied in the Seychelles and Madagascar with an objective of reducing the vulnerability of local communities towards hazards through improving the skills of municipal authorities and local organizations for disaster management.