Disaster risk management

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

First, we take this opportunity to thank the Chairs of the Permanent Council and of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) for this most relevant joint meeting, and the panelists for their excellent presentations and for the information shared with us today; in particular, for the update on the concrete actions being taken to foster resilience in our Hemisphere, and on the availability of funds for climate initiatives in the region.

The Dominican Republic regards the subject of today’s joint meeting as particularly sensitive. As is known, our country is classified as a small island developing State, ranking eleventh in vulnerability to climate change and other natural hazards according to the long-term climate risk index. We are located geographically in the so-called Hurricane Corridor, which exposes us to a wide range of natural hazards such as hurricanes, cyclones, floods and droughts, among others; phenomena that only intensify as we suffer the effects of climate change.

It is in that context that the pressing need becomes clear to raise our levels of resilience, harmonize planning and manage preventively the human, technological and economic resources required to reduce our exposure and vulnerability to those phenomena. For that reason, since 2015, internationally as well as nationally, the Dominican Republic has sought to harmonize its risk management goals with the fulfilment of its climate change commitments and, of course, the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As part of this process, our country has taken concrete steps to create various operational response bodies that promote training initiatives for emergency response, and it has also made important regulatory progress, within which we highlight the adoption of the following legal instruments: Law 147-02 on Risk Management and its Regulations; Decree 275-13, approving the National Plan for Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management in the Dominican Republic; and Decree 360, creating the Emergency Operations Centre (COE) and the National Emergency Commission (CNE), respectively. We have likewise carried out an assessment of the country’s situation with a view to disaster risk reduction, maintaining far-reaching inter-institutional coordination, since more than thirty institutions of the Dominican State, of the most varied rank, are linked to the comprehensive risk management strategies.

The country also has effective first-response bodies that act preventively or respond immediately when a disaster occurs and that, should the need arise, operate in close coordination. Each of those institutions has accumulated great experience, knowledge and capacity for mobilization, given the frequency, unfortunately, with which events of this nature occur.

Other current initiatives we wish to highlight include the new project launched in 2021 to foster climate resilience in the Dominican Republic and other territories of the region, with the support of Columbia World Projects, and the project Prepárate para Responder, which aims to benefit more than twelve thousand people living in areas of high socioeconomic vulnerability and high exposure to natural hazards. Within the framework of the project Strengthening Disaster Risk Management in the Dominican Republic, we have made great progress, with the primary aim of also supporting improved resilience of critical infrastructure in hospitals, schools and water systems.

Clearly, our country is committed to continuing to take firm and decisive steps that show the work of our present Government in strengthening disaster resilience in the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, we are aware that the progress we achieve as a country cannot have the desired effect unless, as has been stressed at this joint meeting, we harmonize our actions at the regional and hemispheric level; and it is in this context that forums such as the Organization of American States (OAS) play an important part in channelling action and the exchange of experience to promote comprehensive disaster risk management in the region.

Thank you very much, Madam Chairs.