Earth Today | CDB, partners assess climate impacts on Jamaican livelihoods

WITH THE 2019 hurricane season under way, researchers are assessing how disasters and climate change affect more than 30 Jamaican communities.

The research, which is being done by representatives from the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (CDRRF), managed by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Social Development Commission (SDC), will focus specifically on the impact on the lives and earnings of residents in the communities.

“This research is critical as it will provide local-level information considered essential to the process of turning awareness of natural hazards and risks faced by communities into actions that will help persons to effectively prepare for and improve their capacity to respond to, and recover from, disasters. The livelihood baseline will help us to see what needs to be put in place to address this,” said Claudia James, project manager for the CDRRF, which is based at the Bank’s headquarters in Barbados.

Throughout June, the CDRRF and SDC team, with technical support from FAO consultant Dr Maria Protz, completed surveys in Llandewey, Ramble and Trinityville St Thomas; Jeffrey Town in St Mary; Peckham, and four surrounding districts in Clarendon and Westmoreland, using methods from FAO’s Livelihood Baseline Toolkit.

Volume 2 of the toolkit emphasises the importance of determining the many ways in which community members earn an income before a disaster, the hazards that are likely to affect them and some of the coping strategies they use in the face of disasters. It also provides a basis for making estimates of the impact of disasters on livelihoods at the community level.

The research comes on the heels of a recent workshop held in Belize, which introduced the toolkit that was developed by the FAO and the International Labour Organization. That workshop, which focused on Volume 2 of the toolkit – Livelihood Baseline and Contingency Plans – was organised by the CDRRF and FAO. SDC staff involved in the data collection exercise were previously among a group of 34 regional representatives trained at this workshop.

“In the Caribbean, we are quite good at disaster and emergency preparedness to minimise loss of life and damage to homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure. But we have not invested the same level of concentration on preparedness for the loss of livelihoods. So our people have much better chances of surviving the immediate impacts of disastrous events, but have challenges getting back to work afterwards,” explained Protz.

“Livelihood contingency plans really don’t exist and as a result, we are often left with guesstimates as to what livelihood resources have been lost. Responses can be quicker and more targeted if we know, in advance, which households and which persons are more likely to be vulnerable, and which livelihoods are most at risk,” she added.

According to Protz, the Livelihood Baseline Assessment offers a methodology for developing solid ‘before pictures’ of the livelihoods that exist in particular communities, and the resources (human, financial, physical, natural) that are needed to sustain them, and what the costs will be if they are lost.

The data collected will be used for inter-agency planning and development of initiatives ahead of disasters. It will also provide a reliable basis for immediate post-disaster assessments.