A team of officials, from the OECS Secretariat, will this week lead a three-day training session in macro-economic damage assessment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

A national training workshop will be held from tomorrow, to Friday, October 8, and is targeted at senior public officials who work in finance, tourism, agriculture, education, as well as health and housing sectors in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The training team will comprise a combined team of staff from the OECS Secretariat, UNECLAC and Trinidad and Tobago.

The workshop is a collaborative effort between the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) and the OECS Secretariat, and is aimed at strengthening skills in disaster response and risk reduction.

Participants are expected to sharpen their skills in collecting accurate baseline data on disaster damage and improve their knowledge in post-disaster impact damage assessment.

A total of five training sessions will be delivered during the three days. In delivering the training, the team will utilize the UN-ECLAC Methodology for Macro-Economic Damage Assessment, as their primary resource tool for the workshop.

The methodology outlines the procedures to be applied in conducting damage assessment following a disaster. The team will present the status of vulnerability in the Caribbean, in order to set the context for the workshop, before it coaches in the methodology and application of the Tool.

The application of the methodology will enable participants to quantify damage caused to social and economic sectors of the island following a disaster. It will also enable them to classify these effects into direct damages and indirect losses, thereby facilitating a more robust understanding of the overall macroeconomic effects.

Through this training, the country is expected to have increased capacity to expedite the recovery process after a disaster.

The workshop is funded by UNDP-Barbados and has been previously held in Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia.