PROSE POST September 2023
Greetings! The USAID PROSE (Policy and Regulatory Reform for Resilience) Activity is now in its second year of implementation. On behalf of the entire PROSE Team, including key partner, The University of the West Indies, I would like to thank the numerous public and private sector organizations throughout the Eastern and Southern Caribbean that have honored us with their collaboration over this past year.
This inaugural edition of the PROSE POST provides highlights of the past year’s technical activities and outlines upcoming activities. Our commitment to continued engagement with national governments continues as they focus on strengthening their legal and regulatory frameworks centered around comprehensive disaster management (CDM) and climate change adaptation (CCA). Additionally, our work with both civil society organizations and private sector groups will continue to expand, with work underway involving key economic sectors, business contingency planning, and gender and youth. This work focuses on the enhancement of CDM/CCA policy, regulations, and planning, with the end goal of strengthened regional, national, sectoral, business, and civic resiliency.
We look forward to engaging further with you over the next year.
Sincerely,
Marianela Guzman
PROSE Chief of Party
Technical Requests
Through the first year of our project, PROSE received over 60 technical requests, primarily coming from the public sector. The majority of these requests involved the creation or updating of policy or regulations pertaining to CDM and/or CCA.
Public Sector Engagement:
Understanding that a strong and comprehensive legal framework is foundational to a nation’s risk reduction, preparedness, and resilient recovery, PROSE supports National Emergency Management Organizations (NEMOs) throughout the region in their incorporation of CDM/CCA aspects into their policies, laws, and regulations. Select on-going collaborations with the NEMOs include:
- Saint Lucia: Review of the Disaster Management Act 2006
- St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Update of the National CDM Strategy and Implementation Plan
- Dominica: Review and Update of CDM Legislation (Draft 2016)
- Regional: Workshop on Principles for Writing and Implementing Policies and Procedures to Support CDM
Sectoral Work:
Year 2 of PROSE will include the integration of CDM/CCA into sectoral regulations or plans. This work includes identifying both sector-specific gaps that may be addressed by PROSE technical support, as well as opportunities to highlight sectoral best practices and roll them out in the region. PROSE plans to focus on the following sectors: agriculture, natural resources, tourism, and water. A SWOT assessment (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of the agriculture and tourism sectors was recently initiated, with technical activities for these two sectors anticipated to begin in the October/November timeframe.
Private Sector Engagement:
Recognizing the private sector’s critical role in reducing the social, economic, and environmental risks of disaster and impacts of climate change, PROSE is working with private sector actors as sector associations and chambers of commerce to build skills in business planning, resiliency, and adaptation. In addition, PROSE is currently engaged with CARICHAM to identify CDM/CCA-related regional opportunities and targeted technical support for select country chambers. It is anticipated that some of this private sector work will focus on assisting chamber members in the application of business resiliency-focused toolkits and guidelines created by UNDRR as part of its ARISE Network and found on CARICHAM’s recently launched Centre of Excellence website.
Civil Society Strengthening
In year 2, PROSE will collaborate with select civil society organizations (CSOs) in the region, including those representing vulnerable groups, as well as sector-support organizations. Our work with CSOs will focus on strengthening their participation in the development and enhancement of DRM/CCA policy and regulations, as well as their own operational resiliency. PROSE is currently assessing numerous CSOs and identifying appropriate technical opportunities to support in the coming months.
Regional Collaboration
The PROSE Team takes great efforts to build relationships with stakeholders across the region in order to identify leverage resources and technical synergies that lead to deeper more impactful results and acknowledges the leadership of key regional organizations such as CDEMA and the important key role played by the donor community pertaining to regional resiliency. As part of our networking, PROSE has participated in several CDM/CCA regional workshops including CDEMA’s 14th Meeting of its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
