The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is placing greater focus on inclusive outreach to communities, focusing on the youth and members of the disabled community.
Speaking during the District Emergency Organisation Conference, held Wednesday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, DEM director Kerry Hinds outlined the need to make growing communities more resilient to disaster risk.
The department, in turn, seeks to ensure better preparation to face the challenges of a changing climate and other hazards through collaborations.
“Engaging youth and disabled individuals is crucial for strengthening community disaster risk management networks. By involving these groups, we envision communities tapping into diverse perspectives, skills and resourcing, leading to more effective and inclusive disaster preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery efforts,” she said.
Hinds explained that as the youth comprise a significant portion of the population they are often experiencing the impacts of disasters. Therefore, by engaging this section of society is a sign to investment in a generation that can lead and adapt to future challenges.
She also added that by engaging the disabled community they ensure that their policies, plans and standard operating procedures are inclusive and accessible to all.
“People with disabilities have unique needs and vulnerabilities, before, during and after disasters and their active participation ensures that those needs are addressed. They have unique skills and perspectives, which we need to invest in,” she said.
Hinds further added that the future of community disaster risk management lies in enhanced collaboration, increased community participation and the strategic integration of technology and data.
The conference, held under the theme Elevating Community Resilience Through Disaster Risk Reduction seeks to ensure that the DEOs can further develop and implement disaster risk reduction strategies.
It also seeks others ensure that communities can quickly recover and return to a level of normalcy by continuing economic activity and livelihoods.
The all-day event sponsored by First Citizens Bank, featured presentations relating to practical application for building community resilience, strategies that can be deployed to sensitise and engage communities.
Making his feature remarks, UN Contributing Author, Community Leader and Climate Change Consultant, Myrico Morris, emphasised the importance of resilience in Barbados.
Highlighting the country’s vulnerability to climate-induced events, he called for proactive, inclusive and data-driven disaster management strategies.
“We must integrate risk reduction in our development plans or infrastructural design and our national budgeting process. It’s not just about response, it’s about prevention, it’s about preparation and it’s about protection,” he said.
Morris also advocated for inclusive policies and the engagement of affected communities to arm the populace with a better response.
“Community engagement doesn’t only infer having a conversation or asking an opinion. When communities are engaged, they are informed. When they’re informed, they can act, when they act, they save themselves and others.
“This dictates that we arm our residents with the tools, knowledge and training necessary to improve their personal resilience, not only to the hurricane hazard, but also to fires, to flooding, landslides and every hazard that is unique to each and every community,” he said. (JRN)
