Update on the PGDM Shelter Management Project
Period Covered: December 2000 - February 2001
The project is being implemented under the Post Georges Mitigation Project by the General Secretariat of the Organisation of American States, to strengthen the emergency shelter programme in Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis. These two (2) CDERA Participating States were severely affected by Hurricane Georges in 1998.
Under this project CDERA has responsibilities for the implementation of a series of activities in Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis. National Disaster Organisations of participating states such as Montserrat, BVI, Barbados and Jamaica have been included through the horizontal cooperation methodology in the implementation process under the following:
4.1 Implementation of activities started in December using the schedule as provided in the timelines in the project document prepared by the CDERA Coordinating Unit. The first three activities in the schedule were completed during the period December2000 – February 2001. As part of the horizontal cooperation and programme sharing methodology, inputs were solicited from the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat. Representatives of the National Disaster Organisations of these countries were required to provide the CDERA Coordinating Unit with a paper that reviewed shelter programmes. These reviews were required to outline the development of the programme and the issues and challenges in implementation.
The timely completion of one of the activities, that is, the assessment of shelter initiatives posed a challenge. The persons originally identified to complete this activity became unavailable and consequently replacements had to be sought. Although several other persons from the regional pool were identified, it was still a difficult to establish window of time that suited the target countries, the CDERA Coordinating Unit and the persons identified for the execution of the activity. We were able to arrive at an agreement with Miss Judy Thomas National Disaster Coordinator, Barbados and Mrs. Carol Anthony of ODPEM of Jamaica. Both Miss Thomas and Mrs. Anthony were involved in the development of the regional shelter programme and have been involved in Shelter Management programmes in their National Disaster Organisastions.
4.2. Activity Schedule
The activity schedule was circulated along with the Memorandum of Understanding between CDERA and the GS/OAS, to the St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda for their comments. St Kitts indicated their agreement with the contents of the document.
In consultation with both Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis the following activities were re-scheduled.
4.3 Term of ReferenceA suggested term of reference for the Shelter Management Planning Group was circulated to both countries. St. Kitts indicated that they would like to have this reviewed and discussed at the National Consultation. There have been no comments from Antigua and Barbuda in this regard.
4.4 Review of Model Emergency Shelter PolicyA review of the model emergency shelter policy and programme was completed in January and sent to the GS/OAS. In the start up period consultation was held with Saint Lucia Montserrat and the British Virgin Island regarding their emergency shelter policy. Both National disaster offices provided copies of the policies. The BVI policy was developed in 1994 before the development of the model policy by CDERA, while St. Lucia used the CDERA model policy to develop theirs.
The following activities are scheduled for completion as provided the implementation schedule in the period March – June 2001.
- National Policy Development Workshops
- Country level technical assistance
- Draft Shelter Management Policy
- Draft Shelter Management Handbook