Dear Editor,
I want to belatedly respond to the sage Eusi Kwyana’s letter of June 16, 2021, entitled `We have a duty to urgently introduce a system of disaster management superior to the current one’. I agree with the majority of sentiments expressed by the erudite elder. I have noted three main gaps in our national climate and disaster response. These are as follows:
1. A lack of climate mainstreaming in all sectors of society. This is an urgent need for a collective response to climate change and associated disasters. Every woman, man, other, and child should be aware of climate change its impact and what our collective roles are in adapting and mitigating its effects.
2. The lack of action on the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) or the draft NAP. The NAP needs to be finalized if still in draft form and its activities lead the mainstreaming efforts.
3. The lack of Climate Disaster Risk Finance Insurance (CDRFI). The pictures and narratives of the economic impacts of the floods in 2021, 2017, and 2005 (the major ones) illustrate an urgent need for some form of CDRFI. CDRFI is a social protection measure for the poor and economically vulnerable of our society. Many of our sister CARICOM countries have begun to design, develop and implement this insurance for various sectors (especially the agriculture sector) that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.
Climate change is here and now, and we need strategic responses to make our human-ecological systems climate and disaster resilient.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
