Caribbean experiences build Latin American expertise, as ECLAC wraps up 9-month training series in Peru

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean has applied its experience in the Caribbean towards building the disaster assessment capacity in Peru’s National Center for Estimation, Prevention and Disaster Risk Reduction (CENEPRED). 

Since May 2015, ECLAC Caribbean has supported the efforts of the CENEPRED to become a forerunner in the field of disaster risk reduction, since Peru remains one of the most vulnerable countries across Latin America to disasters. It is estimated that over the past 15 years there have been 59 disasters in that South American country, causing 3,565 deaths, and affecting more than 8.5 million people[1].

With its well-established experience in dealing with disasters, ECLAC Caribbean has helped strengthen the capacity to assess damage and losses due to disasters of over 100 government and regional officials in several regions of Peru. Training sessions were delivered in Lima, Cusco, Moyobamba and Piura. The last two sessions in Arequipa and Ica, being held from February 2 to 10 will complete wide geographic coverage of CENEPRED's most important regional offices.

The training implemented in Peru is part of an ongoing series of ECLAC disaster training courses, aimed at providing countries with the knowledge to determine their own recovery and reconstruction path, and to incorporate future measures to reduce vulnerabilities and increase resilience.The disaster assessment methodology deployed by ECLAC follows a comprehensive approach, and provides a multisectoral overview of the situation after a disaster, as well as an economic estimate of the damage, losses and additional costs.

[1]UnitedNations (2014), “La estimación de los efectos de los desastres en América Latina,1972-2010”. Omar Bello, Laura Ortiz, Joseluis Samaniego. (://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/37104/S2014127_es.pdf?sequence=1)