International Day For Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) Symposium - St. Lucia

The Symposium was organized in Saint Lucia on 15 October 2019 in order to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR), under the theme ‘Reducing Disaster Damage to Critical Infrastructure and Disruption of Basic Services’.  Although the IDDRR has been celebrated globally for the past 25 years, it was the first time that Saint Lucia organized an activity to commemorate and celebrate this important global disaster focused observance.

The event agenda included presentations on IDDRR, Sendai Framework for DRR, Saint Lucia’s disaster system, Caribbean regional disaster cooperation and the private sector ARISE initiative for DRR. In addition, the different sectors and associations (of engineers and architects) held a panel conversation on the topic ‘Reducing Disaster Damage to Critical Infrastructure and Disruption of Basic Services’. The Caribbean Safe Schools Initiative (CSSI) was presented, as part of the World Initiative for Safe Schools, including Saint Lucia’s active participation within the CSSI. 

During the official speeches, Saint Lucia’s National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) thanked the United Nations Office of Disaster Reduction (UNDRR) for the assistance provided towards Saint Lucia’s DRR efforts. UNDRR congratulated Saint Lucia for the important work done in 2019 towards the private sector inclusion into DRR through the establishment of the ARISE National Network and the development of the public-private-partnership action plan, as a significant contribution towards resilient infrastructure and basic services of the country.