Monitoring
The monitoring and evaluation of the project was the responsibility of the IDB, through its Country Office in Barbados.
Progress and Final Reports
The executing agency was responsible for preparing: (i) an initial work plan with a detailed schedule of activities; (ii) progress reports, to follow a pre-approved Bank format, due on May 31 and November 30 of each year detailing the activities for the previous period, problems found and how they were dealt with, and a plan of activities for the next six months, and; (iii) a final report within three (3) months of the end of execution of the project detailing the development of the project, lessons learned and conclusions reached. Key project documents have been included in the web sites of CDEMA, CTO and the IDB.
Evaluations
A consultant was engaged by CDEMA to establish a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework starting with the collection of baseline data for the project. Based on discussions with selected project stakeholders, the consultant developed baseline indicators and benchmarks prior to the commencement of project activities. This work will serve as the basis for the external evaluations to be undertaken for the project.
A midterm evaluation of the project was completed and a final evaluation will concentrate on project execution, results and sustainability. The IDB will be responsible for contracting the evaluations. The intermediate and final evaluations will serve as input for the preparation of an overall evaluation of the Regional Public Good Initiative.
Audit Reporting
In addition, CDEMA has arranged for an independent audit of the project.
The project’s Executing Agency is the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) which is a regional inter-governmental agency for disaster management established by the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in September 1991.
Executing Unit
In order to coordinate the execution of the project, CDEMA set up an Executing Unit consisting of the Project Coordinator, and the Technical Officer who was contracted under the Institutional Strengthening component. The Unit received accounting and secretarial support from the existing CDEMA Coordinating Unit (CU).
Advisory Committee
The Executing Unit specifically, and the execution of the project as a whole, was guided by an Advisory Committee with the participation of CDEMA, CTO, CROSQ and representatives of the five project pilot countries (The Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Turks and Caicos Islands).
National Focal Points
In order to facilitate the execution of the project, the Executing Unit worked with National Focal Points that were designated from the tourism sector of the project’s pilot beneficiary countries. These Focal Points were responsible, at a national level, for facilitating project execution, maintaining relations, and helping build consensus, with the necessary stakeholders. The countries actively collaborated in the project, and consensus on the various project elements was built through a series of regional and national workshops and technical meetings.
The objective of the project was to develop and adopt a Regional Public Good (RPG) that is a regional risk management framework for the tourism sector in the Caribbean that contributes to the overall goal of reducing the vulnerability of the tourism sector to natural hazards.
The project had two components. Component One supported the preparation of a Strategy and Action Plan for Disaster Risk Management, as well as the Development of Standards for Conducting Hazard Mapping, Vulnerability Assessment and Economic Valuation for Risk Assessment for the Tourism Sector.
Component Two of the project supported capacity development of CDEMA staff, as well as the National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of the CTO.
Also under Component Two, the IDB funded operation also supported the provision of a Technical Officer to facilitate the development of DRM for the Tourism Sector. Preparation of an M&E framework/baseline data gathering mechanism, to assist with project monitoring and evaluation was also funded.
The countries of the region face a common threat in natural hazards. Most countries are small and resources are scarce or non-existent for each to carry out tasks of disaster risk management on an individual basis. Significant economies of scale can be realized through a regional effort to integrate disaster risk management into one of the driving economic sectors in the region, tourism.
Tourists tend to see the Caribbean as one marketplace. If one part of the Caribbean is deemed to have been devastated this easily is reflected as a reduction of flow of visitors also in the other parts of the region. Each territory will benefit individually and collectively from reduced interruption, losses and dislocation as appropriate risk management procedures are implemented.
A stronger risk management will make the tourism sector more competitive and benefit Caribbean economic and social development. In addition the potential loss reduction will decrease the need to redirect external resources available to regional programs to offset economic dislocation from disasters. Hazard induced shocks can be devastating, not only to individual countries but to the regional economy and the Caribbean Single Market as a whole.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) signed a Letter of Agreement in February 2007, which formalized the terms of a Grant in the amount of US$800,000 in support of the Regional Disaster Risk Management for Sustainable Tourism in the Caribbean Project. The Grant financed the development of a regional disaster risk management strategy for sustainable tourism including the formulation of standards for vulnerability assessments and risk mapping applied to the tourism sector; and institutional strengthening of the CDEMA, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), and other stakeholders in disaster risk management for sustainable tourism.
The project was executed by CDEMA, in conjunction with CTO, the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), and the University of the West Indies (UWI). Each agency brought its respective institutional mandate, expertise, and regional constituencies to the execution of the project. CDEMA is the project’s executing agency, and to facilitate its coordination, CDEMA established an Executing Unit consisting of a Project Coordinator, and a Technical Officer. The Executing Unit specifically, and the execution of the project as a whole, was guided by an Advisory Committee which was established with the participation of CDEMA, CTO, and CROSQ, and representatives from the tourism sector of five beneficiary countries (the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Turks & Caicos Islands).