Business View Caribbean | July 2020

13 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN JULY 2020 OPENING L INES Over 160 officials benefited from the one-month training course that focused on human mobility in disaster and climate change scenarios J uly 2, 2020 —More than 160 border officials across nine Member States of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are now better prepared for the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season following a one-month online training on cross border displacement. This year has seen unprecedented changes in the way we go about our daily lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes, and the “new normal” we are adjusting to as a global community, also apply to the 2020 hurricane season. According to the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, the 2020 hurricane season is expected to be an above- normal season with 13 to 19 named storms and an expectation that 6 to 10 of these will become hurricanes. The Caribbean region’s experience during the 2017 and 2019 hurricane seasons, which saw category five (5) storms including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria (2017), and Dorian (2019), left long- lasting physical, emotional, social and economic scars. Moreover, these major storms not only resulted in very high economic and social costs but also led to significant displacement of persons. To this end, the OECS Commission in partnership with the Caribbean Community Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Regional Security System (RSS) designed and delivered an online course on cross border displacement due to disasters and climate change scenarios. The online course, which saw participants from Immigration, Police, Customs, National Defense Forces, Coast Guard and Marine Police across the nine OECS Member States, aimed to achieve the following: 1. Enhance understanding on issues related to environmental migration and disaster displacement in the Caribbean 2. Maximise the capacity of Border Management Systems to process the arrival of displaced persons and improve mechanisms for the OECS BORDER OFFICIALS TRAINED IN CROSS BORDER DISPLACEMENT