Challenges

Countries in the Caribbean share a similar exposure to natural hazards, such as tropical storms and hurricanes. These phenomena have devastating impacts on the food security and nutrition of affected populations, especially those in the most vulnerable situations.

In the Dominican Republic and Haiti, these events have had a severe impact on food security and nutrition, resulting in the island of Hispaniola being one of the most affected areas in the region.

Toward a Solution

Cuba has a National Plan for Addressing Climate Change, called Life Task, that aims to increase resilience and promote the adoption of renewable energies, energy efficiency and sustainable development. Cuba has robust legal and institutional frameworks for disaster risk reduction.

Within the framework of South-South and triangular cooperation, the World Food Programme (WFP) identified an opportunity to facilitate cooperation between these Caribbean island countries with the objective of strengthening the disaster risk reduction capacities of the Dominican Republic and Haiti by learning from Cuban expertise. This project works towards addressing SDGs 2 and 13.

The collaboration started with a regional workshop in December 2014 at which experiences in disaster risk reduction and food security were exchanged between Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The workshop was facilitated by the WFP Regional Bureau in Panama, together with the respective WFP Country Offices. National authorities from the three countries participated, including the Dominican Republic Municipal Committees for Prevention, Mitigation and Response, the National Emergency Commission, Emergency Operations Center, National Meteorology Office, National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Dominican Red Cross and the Social Protection Cabinet. With WFP support, the countries identified a set of activities to be pursued through South-South and triangular cooperation to allow a continuation of peer learning on disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean.

As a follow-up, in 2015, WFP organized the first cycle of field visits with representatives from Cuba visiting both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Experts from the Center of Emergency Operations, national emergency committees, hydro-meteorology offices, civil defense, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Environment of the three countries met to map available capacities and identify the gaps in each country in relation to risk management of disasters. In 2016, the second cycle of exchanges focused on identifying specific actions to be implemented to strengthen disaster risk reduction and management systems in Haiti with the technical expertise of Cuba and the coordination of WFP.

The following needs were identified:

• Strengthen the surveillance and forecasting of extreme events through the installation of numerical models and training of technical personnel of national institutions;
• Share expertise to assess the risk associated with the impact of strong winds, heavy rains and coastal flooding; and
• Develop informative communication protocols to disseminate monitoring information and forecasts.

In parallel to these initiatives, since 2015, WFP has been facilitating Regional Dialogue Platforms on Forecast-based Financing. Forecast-based Financing is an approach to manage climate risks by acting in anticipation of a severe weather event, based on weather forecasts and with pre-positioned finances. The Regional Dialogue Platforms are funded by the German Humanitarian Assistance office and have provided a space to exchange experiences and lessons learned from Forecast-based Financing within the region.

Between 2016 and 2019, WFP facilitated visits of Cuban experts to Haiti to set up a short-term meteorological forecasting system for hurricanes. Haitian meteorologists also participated in several field visits to Cuba and received training on tropical cyclone forecasting methodologies.

These successful South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives facilitated by WFP achieved the following objectives:

1. The National Meteorological Centre of Haiti adopted a numerical model that allows forecasting of possible hurricane trajectories within 48-72 hours, building on the model learned from Cuba.
2. Haitian personnel have been trained to carry out hazards, vulnerabilities and risk assessments at the community level.
3. The Government of Haiti developed a national contingency plan for hurricanes, taking advantage of the experience of Cuba’s Civil Defense.

As part of the Forecast-based Financing component, WFP and the German Red Cross organized a regional meeting in Peru in June 2018 to exchange experiences among countries of the region where Forecast-based Financing is promoted. Presentations were made by government delegations from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti and Peru.

In November 2018, Cuba and the Dominican Republic continued to work together in the area of disaster risk reduction with Cuban professionals from the Instituto de Meterología visiting the Dominican Republic to train staff from the Oficina Nacional de Meterología on a model that helps to understand the impact of rains at a precise level, facilitating prepared response actions.

Building on these successful South-South and triangular cooperation exchanges, peer learning in disaster risk reduction has been replicated and expanded to other countries in the region. In 2019, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Caribbean Disaster Management Administration shared their experiences in early warning systems and disaster risk reduction in a sub-regional disaster risk management forum.

In March 2019, in Santo Domingo, the First Sub-regional Forum on Early Warning and Risk Management in the Caribbean was held with the participation of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti as part of WFP’s Forecast-based Financing initiative. Experiences and best practices were shared at the forum to increase community resilience and strengthen national and regional capacities for disaster risk reduction, mainly linked to SDG 13. A set of principles and actions for resilience building were adopted for the coming 12 months in the Santo Domingo Consensus. In February 2020, a specialist from WFP Cuba led a workshop for institutions of the Dominican Republic to transfer tools developed by Cuban institutions jointly with WFP Cuba. The tools strengthen integrated drought management and reduce its impact on food security and nutrition. To give continuity to this joint effort, and taking into consideration COVID-19, the Second Sub-regional Forum on Early Warning and Risk Management in the Caribbean is planned to take place virtually during 2021.

Cuba’s technical cooperation for forecasting floods due to heavy rains resulted in several missions of Cuban technicians training meteorological counterparts in the Dominican Republic to operate numerical models developed by the Cuban Institute of Meteorology. These tools have been useful and have strengthened the technical capabilities of the Dominican meteorological system to predict the impact of extreme winds and heavy rains. This experience can be replicated based on the successful contribution and the preparation of the Yaque del Norte basin standard of procedures, which make it possible to reach acceptable levels of preparation to face any eventuality.