The largest concentration of Red Cross entities – 16 national societies and 16 overseas branches is located in the Caribbean.

Collectively they have over fifty years historical knowledge of some of the biggest disasters in the region, including Hurricanes Gilbert (1988); Marilyn and Luis (1993) George (1998) and Ivan (2004) which destroyed the economies of Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada respectively.

The National Societies have clearly articulated how to address the challenges faced by vulnerable Caribbean communities in the Regional Cooperation Agreement Strategy (R/CAS) and have intimate local knowledge and networks through the thousands of local volunteers and members.

This places these Red Cross entities in a strong position to ensure that the unique needs of targeted community are met and the human resources to assist in a cost effective manner, provided.

The National Societies and Overseas Branches have the added strength of being able to scale-up their operations by calling on the resources of sister National Societies in the Americas, as well as the global Red Cross network.

The paradox is that communities do possess great capacity to improve on their resilience, but there is insufficient help available to them. Most public services in the region lack the resources to effectively assist the vulnerable.

The National Societies and Overseas Branches seek to fill some of the gaps. The communities are responsive, but need encouragement to stay focused on disaster management issues.

The Red Cross, through partnerships with government authorities and civil society organizations, community disaster management training (using the VCA methodology), establishment and strengthening of early warning systems and raising awareness to emerging issues, is steadily improving the resilience of communities.

This has, to a large part, been made possible through the support of the European Community Humanitarian Office for Disasters (DIPECHO). In the last five years, fifteen Caribbean countries have implemented Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) activities through the DIPECHO Projects I to IV.