49
tors. Policymaker and senior official Y1 summed
this up as:
There is an increased frequency of storms in 2010,
2011, 2012 and 2013 resulting in flooding and
landslides. These hurricanes destroyed large acreages of watersheds. This has implications for the
quality and quantity of water produced and supplied to householders. Storms destroyed over 1000
houses, water supply and storage tanks, 17 bridges
and miles of roads between 2010 and 2013.
Over 90% of the youth participating in the
FGDs discussed the increasing storm frequency
and severity. Within the past 5 years, they claimed
to have experienced major storms annually. A
young woman from FGD X4 expressed her opinion of storms:
Hurricanes are getting stronger and more dangerous over the past five years. They are ranging from
150–250 miles per hour, blowing away everything
in their way. They are destroying housing, crops
and forested areas. (Bway dem hurricane ah geh
stranga an badder. Win ah blo between 150–250mile ena owa. Dem blo down plente house, tree like
mango an dem inah e faris).
In the Caribbean SIDS, there is a defined hurricane season, June to November. However, climate change has caused these storms to occur
outside of the designated hurricane season.
Policymaker and senior official Y2 states:
In 2013 we were struck by storms which occurred
outside of the hurricane season. Over US$100 million in damages to property and 13 deaths were
recorded. In some instances, parts of the country
were utterly cut off.
Over half of policymakers spoke of the crippling effects of storms on small business operators who lost their businesses and had no
insurance to cover losses. Due to the high cost of
insurance in SIDS, many of these small business
operators were unable to restart their businesses
and are now living in poverty. Storms are regularly occurring and more severely year on year.
The government has responded by establishing
NEMO to deal with disaster preparedness activities. However, the response is inadequate because
the office lacks the human and financial resources
to respond to these disasters adequately. Although
NEMO conducted training programmes to train
volunteers to work on district disaster committees (DDCs), it cannot develop and implement
plans to learn from these experiences effectively
as there is the absence of a viable mechanism to
ensure learning takes place from these occurrences. There is also the absence of an active
monitoring and evaluation mechanism to provide
feedback to NEMO on the effectiveness of the
DDCs.
Youth, like policymakers, took the opportunity to talk about the devastating impact of
storms. Each person was desperate to retell their
own stories in detail about how storms have
impacted their lives over the past 5 years. The
descriptions of their various experiences were
very graphic, and at times several youths were
tearful while recounting the events. All youth
who participated in the FGDs stated that the
impact of storms on youth is more devastating
than on the other population groups because they
are deemed more marginalised, vulnerable and
more impoverished. Climate extremes such as
storms tend to be linked with a lower rate of
growth (ILO 2010) and severe destruction of
property and lives (Sem 2007; CARIBSAVE
2012; IPCC 2014a, b; Economist 2017).
Community
Many coastal communities and reef-based industries are likely to struggle to cope with the challenges of climate change and the adverse impact
on local economies and livelihood sustainability
(Hernandez-Delgado 2015). The cluster “community” is divided into sub-themes/clusters: (1)
unsustainable livelihoods, (2) health and wellbeing, (3) housing and infrastructure and (4)
community development and organisation.
Unsustainable Livelihoods
All policymakers and youth participating in the
study are aware of the linkage between climate
change and livelihoods. Policymaker and senior
official Y7 highlighted the link between climate
change and the natural resource base of island
communities and the impact on the tourism
industry:
Summary of Analyses of the Top- Down and Bottom-Up Approaches from Data Collected…
tors. Policymaker and senior official Y1 summed
this up as:
There is an increased frequency of storms in 2010,
2011, 2012 and 2013 resulting in flooding and
landslides. These hurricanes destroyed large acreages of watersheds. This has implications for the
quality and quantity of water produced and supplied to householders. Storms destroyed over 1000
houses, water supply and storage tanks, 17 bridges
and miles of roads between 2010 and 2013.
Over 90% of the youth participating in the
FGDs discussed the increasing storm frequency
and severity. Within the past 5 years, they claimed
to have experienced major storms annually. A
young woman from FGD X4 expressed her opinion of storms:
Hurricanes are getting stronger and more dangerous over the past five years. They are ranging from
150–250 miles per hour, blowing away everything
in their way. They are destroying housing, crops
and forested areas. (Bway dem hurricane ah geh
stranga an badder. Win ah blo between 150–250mile ena owa. Dem blo down plente house, tree like
mango an dem inah e faris).
In the Caribbean SIDS, there is a defined hurricane season, June to November. However, climate change has caused these storms to occur
outside of the designated hurricane season.
Policymaker and senior official Y2 states:
In 2013 we were struck by storms which occurred
outside of the hurricane season. Over US$100 million in damages to property and 13 deaths were
recorded. In some instances, parts of the country
were utterly cut off.
Over half of policymakers spoke of the crippling effects of storms on small business operators who lost their businesses and had no
insurance to cover losses. Due to the high cost of
insurance in SIDS, many of these small business
operators were unable to restart their businesses
and are now living in poverty. Storms are regularly occurring and more severely year on year.
The government has responded by establishing
NEMO to deal with disaster preparedness activities. However, the response is inadequate because
the office lacks the human and financial resources
to respond to these disasters adequately. Although
NEMO conducted training programmes to train
volunteers to work on district disaster committees (DDCs), it cannot develop and implement
plans to learn from these experiences effectively
as there is the absence of a viable mechanism to
ensure learning takes place from these occurrences. There is also the absence of an active
monitoring and evaluation mechanism to provide
feedback to NEMO on the effectiveness of the
DDCs.
Youth, like policymakers, took the opportunity to talk about the devastating impact of
storms. Each person was desperate to retell their
own stories in detail about how storms have
impacted their lives over the past 5 years. The
descriptions of their various experiences were
very graphic, and at times several youths were
tearful while recounting the events. All youth
who participated in the FGDs stated that the
impact of storms on youth is more devastating
than on the other population groups because they
are deemed more marginalised, vulnerable and
more impoverished. Climate extremes such as
storms tend to be linked with a lower rate of
growth (ILO 2010) and severe destruction of
property and lives (Sem 2007; CARIBSAVE
2012; IPCC 2014a, b; Economist 2017).
Community
Many coastal communities and reef-based industries are likely to struggle to cope with the challenges of climate change and the adverse impact
on local economies and livelihood sustainability
(Hernandez-Delgado 2015). The cluster “community” is divided into sub-themes/clusters: (1)
unsustainable livelihoods, (2) health and wellbeing, (3) housing and infrastructure and (4)
community development and organisation.
Unsustainable Livelihoods
All policymakers and youth participating in the
study are aware of the linkage between climate
change and livelihoods. Policymaker and senior
official Y7 highlighted the link between climate
change and the natural resource base of island
communities and the impact on the tourism
industry:
Summary of Analyses of the Top- Down and Bottom-Up Approaches from Data Collected…