GENEVA, CMC – The Bahamas will host the Ninth Regional Platform for Catastrophe Danger Discount within the Americas and the Caribbean (RP26) throughout the first week of Might subsequent yr,’ Minister of State chargeable for Catastrophe Danger Administration within the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) nation, Leon Lundy, has introduced.
He advised delegates attending the World Platform for Catastrophe Danger Discount right here that “as we glance to RP26, let it’s a catalyst for reform, for resilience and regional resolve.
“The Bahamas is prepared, able to host, prepared to guide, able to welcome all of you to our islands for a brand new defining second of shared function and a fierce perception that we will and we should do higher,” he advised the “Accelerating resilient growth by risk-informed funding in Americas and the Caribbean” convention.
The viewers included Kamal Kishore, particular consultant of the United Nations Secretary-Basic for Catastrophe Danger Discount and Head of the United Nations Workplace for Catastrophe Danger Discount; Ronald Jackson, head of the Catastrophe Danger Discount, Restoration, and Resilience Constructing Staff on the United Nations Improvement Programme Disaster Bureau and Elizabeth Riley, the chief director of the Barbados-based Caribbean Catastrophe Emergency Administration Company.
“There are moments, defining moments that change how we see the world, moments that cut up time into earlier than and after, not only for people, however for whole nations,” Lundy stated.
He stated that September 1, 2019, was a kind of moments for The Bahamas when Hurricane Dorian devastated the island chain.
Hurricane Dorian, the strongest hurricane on document to hit the Bahamas, battered Abaco and Grand Bahama for 3 days, inflicting catastrophic injury.
The class 5 storm, mixed with a “king tide,” generated an enormous tidal wave as much as 21 toes excessive that flooded the low-lying islands.
“It laid naked not solely the vulnerability of our folks however the fragility of our techniques, the bounds of our preparedness, and the pressing must do issues in another way. We misplaced lives, moms, fathers and youngsters,” Lundy stated.
“We misplaced complete communities swept away in hours. We misplaced part of ourselves that we might by no means absolutely get better, however we additionally gained one thing – one thing fierce, one thing trustworthy. We gained resolve. We gained the painful however highly effective understanding that resilience will not be a luxurious. It’s a necessity.”
He stated the Bahamas was not alone concerning the impression of pure hazards, noting the 2021 earthquake in Haiti, the landslides in Brazil in 2022, and the damaging path of Hurricane Beryl by the Caribbean final yr.
“From floods to hurricanes to wildfires time and time once more, we’re examined, we’re delivered to our knees, however every time we’re impacted, we’ve seen one thing extraordinary, a dedication to face again up and a collective willpower to construct again higher. That willpower is why I’m right here immediately.”
He stated that whereas The Bahamas was saying the internet hosting of RP26 with “each humility and function,” the assembly “can’t be one other spherical of talks, one other set of declarations filed away.
“Our nations can’t afford it. RP26 should be pressing; it should be daring, and it should be actual,” Lundy stated, including that The Bahamas has modified since Hurricane Dorian “as a result of we needed to.
“We’ve shifted from a reactive method to a extra proactive, institutionalized mannequin of catastrophe danger governance. We’ve established an impartial catastrophe danger administration authority and codified resilience in regulation.
“We’ve launched a legally mandated, complete catastrophe danger monetary technique, and now we have begun the laborious work of embedding resilience into how we construct, how we plan, and the way we govern.”
He stated the nation was not but the place it wished to be
“We’re nonetheless studying, nonetheless rising, however we’re dedicated, and that dedication to motion is what RP 26 represents for us, as we all know it does for your complete area, Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly our Caribbean small island creating states, they face disproportionate danger, caught between a local weather disaster that we didn’t trigger and a world local weather agenda that usually overlooks our most pressing wants.
“Nonetheless, we aren’t victims ready for rescue. This vulnerability, this necessity, has cast us as collaborators, innovators, and, most significantly, leaders,” Lundy stated, including that RP26 is the pure continuation of that legacy.
“It’s a platform to return collectively, to pay attention, to share, and to drive one another ahead. It’s the place we take the Sendai Framework off the web page and into our communities and the place we demand collectively that the world acknowledge the stakes by which we dwell each day,” Lundy stated.
“For me, it’s easy. We can’t afford one other Dorian. We can’t afford to be unready, unfunded, or unheard as a result of the subsequent storm is not going to anticipate us to catch up, and the earth is not going to pause whereas we debate,” the Bahamas minister for catastrophe danger administration stated.
