Technical Assistance Programme
Back Row, l-r – Mr Rhon-Paul Soltau, scholarship recipient; Mr William Iton, University Registrar; Dr Simon Young, CEO Caribbean Risk Managers, Facility Supervisor CCRIF; Prof. Alwyn Wint, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Undergraduate Studies; Prof. Ronald Young, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Graduate Studies; and Mr Dorlan Burrell, scholarship recipient.
Front Row, l-r – scholarship recipients, Mr Kevin Douglas, Ms Odene Baker, and Ms Gerarda Ramcharansingh
The University of the West Indies marked the inauguration of the UWI-CCRIF Scholarship Programme in a handover ceremony held at the Mona campus on 26 May, 2011. In the first year of the programme, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has provided scholarships worth US$49,000 to six students at the University who are pursuing study in areas related to disaster management.
The UWI-CCRIF Scholarship Programme is part of CCRIF’s Technical Assistance Programme which is designed to help Caribbean countries deepen their understanding of natural hazards and catastrophe risk, and the potential impacts of climate change on the region, thereby leading to increased regional climate change resilience through improved risk management.
The CCRIF Board approved the development of a technical assistance (TA) programme for the region. The overall aim of the programme is to help Caribbean countries deepen their understanding of natural hazards and catastrophe risk, and the potential impacts of climate change on the region. This in turn will build capacity and knowledge bases for the development of adaptation strategies and building of regional climate change resilience through improved risk management.
The technical assistance programme will consist of three main components as shown below:
Component 1: The scholarship programme will support studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) as well as elsewhere, and will focus on enhancing regional capacity by funding a number of students in selected bachelors and masters programmes. This programme is likely to include the following elements:
- Scholarships for disaster management master’s programme at UWI-DRRC
- One or more other undergraduate scholarships for other UWI courses
- Several scholarships for bachelor’s and master’s courses overseas
- Support for professional development training courses at CIMH
- Support for CDEMA’s new Regional Civil Defence Training Programme
Component 2: The regional ‘strategic’ knowledge-building component will likely include projects within the following tracks:
- Support for development of training and implementation materials for Country Risk Officers in CARICOM member states
- Support for quantitative work on the economics of climate adaptation in the Caribbean in partnership with regional institutions (UN-ECLAC and 5Cs) and international experts to build a strong knowledge base for climate change adaptation and risk management decision-making
- Development and implementation of an extreme weather data collection network across the region
- Support for UN-ECLAC in updating their post-disaster loss assessment methodology and exploring synergies with economic loss modelling within the CCRIF second generation loss modelling framework
- Support for academic research projects by Caribbean and international institutions focussing on issues of regional interest in disaster risk management
Component 3: The local initiatives component aims to support small disaster risk management projects and programmes being implemented at the community level and which contribute to the fulfilment of the CCRIF mandate and the wider comprehensive disaster risk management agenda. This programme will finance small projects being run by NGOs and charity organisations and/or mandated by national disaster coordinators in local communities across CCRIF member countries. All projects must be of relevance to CCRIF and its regional mandate and agenda and can therefore be inclusive of but not limited to projects related to the following broad areas: disaster risk management; engineering; climate change adaptation; and training and other capacity building.
TA Programme Focus 2010-2011
At a meeting of the CCRIF Board held on 15 December, 2009 approval was given for the phased rollout of the TA programme which will focus initially on components 1 and 2. CCRIF will immediately support components of the programme as follows:
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Scholarship/Professional Development Programme
o Provision of scholarships to the University of the West Indies (UWI). This will include three scholarships for students in the one-year disaster management masters programme and two two-year scholarships for students entering their second of three years in Geography/Geology (Mona campus, Jamaica) and Civil with Environmental Engineering (St. Augustine campus, Trinidad). -
Regional ‘Strategic’ Knowledge Building
o Support for UN-ECLAC in updating their post-disaster loss assessment methodology and exploring synergies with economic loss modelling within the CCRIF second generation loss modelling framework.