INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
Presentation by Mr Jeremy Collymore Coordinator,
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency
for Reform of the State and Institutional
Development Building National and Regional
Systems for Risk Mitigation and Disaster
Prevention Workshop March 25 - 26, 2000 (New
Orleans)
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
PRESENT APPROACH Interventions have generally
occurred without the definition of overall policy
framework
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
PRESENT APPROACH Determined by event driven
opportunities influenced by recovery and
rehabilitation needs
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
PRESENT APPROACH Nature and Medium of support
determined by donor interests and less on country
priorities
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• NEW APPROACH
• To benefit from past and recent experiences
  suggest the following
• Reflection on institutionalization and
  implications for the nature and framing of policy
• Capacity for What?
• Capacitation for Whom?

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
NEW APPROACH Need strategic framework built on
consultation and consensus building
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• PROCESS ELEMENTS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND
  NETWORKING
• Skills, technology, transfer, education, training
  public information
• Horizontal Cooperation
• Technology Transfer

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• CURRENT STATUS
• Event Driven
• Mono Hazard
• Response Focussed
• Institutional (donors) programme directed
• Disconnected from development

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• REFORM FOCUS
• Address above - Specifically
• What is the policy framework/ environment-society
  relationship
• Committed to removing risks and fail only when
  uncertainty is high
• Vulnerability reduction. Who is vulnerable? How
  is this generated?
• Solution - Application of measuring/monitoring
  technology structural management strategies

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• CARIBBEAN STRATEGY
• Define a policy framework for CDM
• Seek political endorsement for the policy process
• Incorporate into the agenda of critical
  institutions of the community

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• CARIBBEAN STRATEGIC
• Engage major sector players - tourism,
  agriculture, health, education and utilities
• Develop a programming framework built on
  consensus - strategic objectives, indicative
  results, intervention package
• Define stakeholders in the above
• Sociological - human behaviour impact on society
  functions

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• ASSUMPTIONS MITIGATION
• Most vulnerable societies are those unable to
  reconstruct their livelihoods following a
  disaster. Become more vulnerable
• Changes in the frequencies of the event. Do not
  have to occur for vulnerability to increase

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
PAST CHANGE AGENTS 1. 1979 Hurricanes David,
Frederick Volcanic Eruption in St
Vincent - Establishment of PCDPPP - Donor
Cooperation - Emergency Institutionalization of
disaster management
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
PAST CHANGE AGENTS 2. Hurricanes Gilbert (1988)
and Hugo (1989) - Establishment of
CDERA - Inter-governmental cooperation - Enhance
d national focal points - Inter-Agency
Programming Consultations
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
GOAL OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN THE
CARIBBEAN Establishment of mechanisms at regional
and national levels that allow for the
institutionalization of disaster management as a
major decision factor in development planning
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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• CHANGES NECESSARY
• TO ACHIEVE GOALS
• Policy Framework that promotes public service
  inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial
  consultations
• Community based programmes that are empowering

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• CHANGES NECESSARY
• TO ACHIEVE GOALS
• Self-reliance oriented programming
• End-user directed public education and training
• Introduction and promotion of economic
  preparedness planning

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE
• Links with coastal zone management programmes
• Creating a niche in national sustainable
  development programmes

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACCOMMODATING CHANGE
• Use of sustained development councils to promote
  idea of hazard resistant communities
• Establishment of programming partnerships with
  poverty reduction and alleviation programmes

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• Rational decision-making can impose institutional
  restrictions thus improving stability.
• Also open to a number of manipulative strategies
• Sayer 1999

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM

• Institutions by definition are the more enduring
  features of social life
• Giddens 1984

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INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY/REFORM
Institutionalism refers to the embedding of
specific practices in a wider context of social
relations that cut across the landscape of formal
organizations and to the active processes by
which individuals in social context constructs
their way of thinking and acting P.Huley P112