Guyana meets the deadline of the 2020 Sendai Framework Global Target

By: UNDRR – Las Americas and The Caribbean

Georgetown, Guyana, AUGUST 30, 2018 – Over the last three days, representatives from various sectors in Guyana gathered to advance in the development of the country's five-year Country Work Programme (CWP) for 2019-2024 for Disaster Risk Reduction and Comprehensive Disaster Management.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, Director General of Guyana's Civil Defence Commission, "this is Guyana's 3rd CWP process and, for each iteration, we try to make it better than before.  Having learnt from the previous CWP, this time around we are making a conscious effort to ensure that we place emphasis on the performance measurement framework as this is critical for implementation, monitoring and evaluation.  This time we are also placing a lot of emphasis on stakeholder involvement and implementation.  We see the CWP and Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as the main enabling environment for development.  This process will also set the foundation for our Green State Development Strategy, for implementing the Sendai Framework and Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy, as well as for our emerging oil and gas sector.  Going forward, the success of the CWP is dependent on the level of buy-in from all our stakeholders.  For us, a key area of focus in this CWP is private sector engagement, that is, having them integrally involved in our DRM agenda (and in all phases of disaster risk reduction and disaster management)."

Together with countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana is undertaking consolidated efforts through multisectoral and participatory dialogue.  These national CWP workshops are based on an analysis of gaps from the country CDM audits.

Guidance for enhancing disaster risk management is provided by regional and global agendas as defined through the Caribbean Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Strategy 2014-2024 and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The CWP will have a number of indicators that accompany the nationally defined outputs and outcomes. 

In the case of Guyana, this vision looks towards a safer and more resilient nation through comprehensive disaster management over the next five years, with emphasis being placed on strengthening institutional arrangements, knowledge management and public awareness as well as enhanced capacities for implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The strategy is mindful of the importance of risk management for Guyana in areas such as policy and legislation, the emerging oil and gas sector, education, agriculture, infrastructure and natural resource management as well as to promote private sector engagement and stakeholder engagement.

According to Ms. Allana Walters, Planning and Training Assistant, Civil Defence Commission, "this stakeholder gathering is viewed as being critical for buy-in as we build out the 5-year Country Work Programme. There is common understanding and acceptance among the participants that the performance of CDM in Guyana will depend on us all.  The level of representation here this week is encouraging as we have participation from several agency and DRM focal points among others.

As also noted by a participant, "having participated in the data gathering process for the Audit tool and other stakeholder sessions, I find this process very useful, as the big picture with input from other agency partners can be seen."

This workshop is hosted by Guyana's Civil Defence Commission with the support of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

These activities are part of the project "Strengthening regional disaster risk reduction strategies and capacities for resilience in the Caribbean" financially supported by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

 

Related links:

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030

Regional Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM): strategy and results framework 2014-2024 - Summary

Guidelines For The Preparation of Country Work Programme: How to Prepare a Country Work Programme

http://www.cdema.org/

https://www.entwicklung.at/en

https://americas/index-eng.html