SANTO DOMINGO.-The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Civil Defenses of Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, together with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, have officially launched the project aimed at strengthening national capacities and increasing resilience to disasters in critical infrastructure in the education and water supply sectors in the three countries.
The project has developed an intervention strategy to ensure the integration of these issues within the organizational structures and decision-making levels responsible for disaster risk management in each country.
The initiative, entitled "Strengthening Capacities, Security and Resilience of Critical Infrastructures in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti", will also contribute to strengthening capacities for knowledge management, methodological facilitation, institutionalization of tools, improvement of coordination mechanisms and intervention in vulnerability, guaranteeing cross-cutting, intersectoral, gender and social inclusion approaches.
The initiative is funded by the Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund (IRAF) of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), under the Infrastructure for Island Resilient States (IRIS) window, in partnership with the National Council for Climate Change of the Dominican Republic and key national emergency and civil defense actors, with support from the Government of India.
The project aims to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure by strengthening technical capacity and methodological application for assessing infrastructure safety and resilience. It will focus on educational and water supply infrastructure at the national level in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Haiti, with an inclusive vision to improve early warning coordination mechanisms at the regional level in response to climate events and to implement South-South cooperation mechanisms, according to a press release.
Amit Prothi, Director General of CDRI, stated that they are committed to supporting the Caribbean region in improving the resilience of its infrastructure by strengthening institutional and technical capacities.
For her part, Ana María Díaz, the UNDP Resident Representative in the Dominican Republic, noted that the international organization appreciates the trust placed in it by the national emergency and civil defense commissions in the execution of this project and reiterated the UNDP's full commitment to supporting the three governments of the region in managing climate crises and shocks.
He also took the opportunity to thank the governments of India, the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union, donors to the IRAF fund, for placing their trust in UNDP to implement this project and congratulate CDRI on its ambition, reiterating UNDP's commitment to strengthening its joint work with the Government of India in the Dominican Republic.
At the end of this initiative, a network of 45 trained and certified professionals will be established across the three countries. These professionals will be proficient in the application and use of standardized methodologies for assessing the safety and resilience of educational and water supply infrastructure, capable of disseminating knowledge and available for deployment to any country in the region when needed. Furthermore, 21 educational infrastructures and 12 water supply infrastructures will have been assessed, with intervention plans and functional improvements implemented in 24 of these facilities, among other results.
The document underlines that the Caribbean region, due to its geographical location and conditions of vulnerability (physical, social, economic and environmental), is highly susceptible to the impact of climatic and geological threats.
"Climate change and other global trends are increasing the intensity and frequency of threats. According to the IPCC (6th Assessment Report), tropical cyclones and severe storms are expected to become more extreme in the Caribbean.".
Cover photo: Virtual launch of the project.
