KINGSTON, Jamaica: Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr Wayne Henry, says several valuable lessons have emerged from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that can potentially aid in bolstering stakeholder preparedness for similar and other future occurrences.

Henry was speaking during a digital high-level forum as part of the seventh semi-virtual Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean (RP21).

In his address, Henry highlighted that one key takeaway from the ongoing pandemic has been the importance of technology-enabled mechanisms to facilitate engagements without putting lives at risk.

“We had to move educational service delivery online for our school system. The need for mechanisms to be in place is imperative. You can’t wait for the crisis to come, and then you end up trying to react. So, the need to be proactive is very important,” he stressed

Henry also indicated that information sharing has also proven to be an important factor since the onset of COVID-19. He shared that in times of crisis information sharing “allows for [stakeholder] collaboration and buy-in [and for them] to know what is happening.” He also expressed that now more than ever, credibility and trust are vital to the successful flow of any organization.

The four-day Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean conference was jointly hosted by the Government of Jamaica, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). It was held under the theme, ‘Strengthening Disaster Risk Governance: Lessons from COVID-19’.

Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, shared similar thoughts. Underscoring the importance of having the framework of the Disaster Risk Management Plan, Tufton, who was also in attendance at the forum, highlighted how proactive planning assisted Jamaica in handling the pandemic in the early stages.

 “When COVID started to show its head back in November/December two years ago, we were able to begin to look at that plan and contextualise the plan, which gave us a head start in taking some early decisions,” he noted. “If you don’t have a plan in place that you can contextualise and work towards, then a country would have to start from scratch, which would put it in a major vulnerable position. So, whether it is a hurricane or drought, or in this instance, a pandemic of the likes of COVID-19, you can, in a sense, anticipate, given where you are in the world and what the trends are.”