The Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy and Programming Framework III is a national Strategy with a cross-sectoral approach and the duration of the Strategy is 4 years from 2014 to 2018. The Main objective of the Strategy is to achieve effective disaster resilience and safeguard the sustainable development of the Virgin Islands. Public awareness will be raised regarding food security by implementing campaigns within the involvement of all stakeholders. The Strategy will achieve an effective resilience through disaster preparedness, risk reduction, mitigation and climate change adaptation by institutionalizing and integrating Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM), climate change adaptation and gender considerations within Government, and engaging the private sector and communities in building resilience. The Strategy sets out that the mandate of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) will be enlarged and well defined and knowledge management about the impacts of hazards and disasters will be improved. DRR will be integrated to all sectors. Enhanced planning will be done through hazard identification and vulnerability assessments will be developed incorporating structural and non-structural mitigation. Vulnerability of livelihoods will be decreased through enhanced community-based disaster risk reduction and mitigation and response to hazard impacts will be ensured. Early warning systems and hazard monitoring will be enhanced to improve disaster risk reduction. The capacity of emergency operations will be improved. The capacity of response to disasters within key sectors will be improved through training. CDM will be integrated into national policies, laws and other strategies. Closer collaboration with focal points in Ministries of Communications and Works (C&W) and Natural Resources and Labour (NRL) will be ensured to improve linkages between DRR, energy and climate adaptation measure. Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) standards will be established in education sector and awareness campaigns will be undertaken at schools. Mortality and morbidity due to disasters will be reduced by creating a Health sector’s disaster risk reduction and management system. A comprehensive tourism disaster management campaign will be implemented. Special outreach programs will be developed for vulnerable groups, homeowners, marine community, building contractors, Spanish speakers and Filipinos. A joint awareness campaign between the Department of Agriculture and the DDM will be designed to ensure food security as a coping mechanism against all disasters and different stakeholders such as farming population, civil society and appropriate Government agencies and policy makers will be included in the establishment and implementation of such campaign. A clear, consistent and actionable information system will be designed regarding data on potential and impending disaster situations to ensure timely public information. The Strategy also sets forth that there are various plans to be developed and implemented These plans are as follows: a) a plan for debris for appropriate agencies have a plan that facilitates and coordinates the collection, removal, and disposal of debris following a disaster; b) a management plan for marine and land search and rescue; c) a hazardous material management plan regarding incidents involving chemical/hazardous materials. Climate smart and disaster resilient health care facilities which link their structural and operational safety with green interventions, at a reasonable cost-benefit ratio. All emergency shelters in the Virgin Islands will be retrofitted to international health and safety standards. Instructions will be prepared and made available on how to take immediate shelter, as a short term remedy, for specific disaster scenarios and for critical facilities. An inter-agency, inter-sectoral working group will be established to provide the leadership for promoting community-based disaster risk reduction activities. To ensure the resilience of communities a community based climate change projects will be implemented and a Smart Communities Program will be launched which provides for practice of sustained mitigation, adaptation and resilient techniques. A protocol for hardware system will be established for the Early Warning System and Emergency Telecommunications as well as implementing a Common Alert Protocol (CAP). The Strategy further provides for capacity building for external agencies, volunteers and Emergency Responders through training activities, training in HAZMAT response and medical field, training for fire safety program and lastly provides for specialized training in search and rescue. The Strategy also sets out specific priority actions for energy and agriculture sectors. These priority actions are a) policy and action plan for integrating renewable energy with climate change and disaster risk reduction; b) implementation of a program for combating drought – rainwater harvesting, collection points for run-off to ensure food security; and c) establishment of livestock tagging and licensing program. The National Disaster Management Council and the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) are responsible from the implementation of this Strategy.
جزر فيرجين البريطانية (المملكة المتحدة) · 2014-01-01