1. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Presentation by Mr Jeremy Collymore Coordinator, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency for “Reform of the State and Institutional Development: Building National and Regional Systems for Risk Mitigation and Disaster Prevention” Workshop March 25 - 26, 2000 (New Orleans)

2. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACH Interventions have generally occurred without the definition of overall policy framework

3. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACH Determined by event driven opportunities influenced by recovery and rehabilitation needs

4. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PRESENT APPROACHNature and Medium of support determined by donor interests and less on country priorities

5. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • NEW APPROACH • To benefit from past and recent experiences suggest the following: • Reflection on institutionalization and implications for the nature and framing of policy • Capacity for What? • Capacitation for Whom?

6. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM NEW APPROACH Need strategic framework built on consultation and consensus building

7. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • PROCESS ELEMENTS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND NETWORKING • Skills, technology, transfer, education, training public information • Horizontal Cooperation • Technology Transfer

8. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • CURRENT STATUS • Event Driven • Mono Hazard • Response Focussed • Institutional (donors) programme directed • Disconnected from development

9. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • REFORM FOCUS • Address above - Specifically • What is the policy framework/ environment-society relationship • Committed to removing risks and fail only when uncertainty is high • Vulnerability reduction. Who is vulnerable? How is this generated? • Solution - Application of measuring/monitoring technology structural management strategies

10. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • CARIBBEAN STRATEGY • Define a policy framework for CDM • Seek political endorsement for the policy process • Incorporate into the agenda of critical institutions of the community

11. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • CARIBBEAN STRATEGIC • Engage major sector players - tourism, agriculture, health, education and utilities • Develop a programming framework built on consensus - strategic objectives, indicative results, intervention package • Define stakeholders in the above • Sociological - human behaviour impact on society functions

12. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • ASSUMPTIONS: MITIGATION • Most vulnerable societies are those unable to reconstruct their livelihoods following a disaster. Become more vulnerable • Changes in the frequencies of the event. Do not have to occur for vulnerability to increase

13. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PAST CHANGE AGENTS 1. 1979: Hurricanes David, Frederick & Volcanic Eruption in St Vincent - Establishment of PCDPPP - Donor Cooperation - Emergency Institutionalization of disaster management

14. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM PAST CHANGE AGENTS 2. Hurricanes Gilbert (1988) and Hugo (1989) - Establishment of CDERA - Inter-governmental cooperation - Enhanced national focal points - Inter-Agency Programming Consultations

15. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM GOAL OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN Establishment of mechanisms at regional and national levels that allow for the institutionalization of disaster management as a major decision factor in development planning

16. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • CHANGES NECESSARY • TO ACHIEVE GOALS • Policy Framework that promotes public service inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial consultations • Community based programmes that are empowering

17. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • CHANGES NECESSARY • TO ACHIEVE GOALS • Self-reliance oriented programming • End-user directed public education and training • Introduction and promotion of economic preparedness planning

18. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE • Links with coastal zone management programmes • Creating a niche in national sustainable development programmes

19. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE • Use of sustained development councils to promote idea of hazard resistant communities • Establishment of programming partnerships with poverty reduction and alleviation programmes

20. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • Rational decision-making can impose institutional restrictions thus improving stability. • Also open to a number of manipulative strategies • Sayer 1999

21. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM • Institutions by definition are the more enduring features of social life • Giddens 1984

22. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM Institutionalism refers to the embedding of specific practices in a wider context of social relations that cut across the landscape of formal organizations and to the active processes by which individuals in social context constructs their way of thinking and acting P.Huley P112