(CCCCC Media Release 2021/010)
(City of Belmopan, Belize) This week on June 1, 2021, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) along with contracted firm, SOFRECO, held a Peer-to-Peer Exchange on Knowledge Management and Regional Cooperation with representatives from other regional partners, water utilities, water agency stakeholders, NGOs, and government officials to identify, strengthen, and establish mechanisms, protocols and capacities for knowledge management, exchange, and cooperation between water entities. During the brief opening, Dr. Colin Young, Executive Director of the CCCCC addressed participants, stressing the need for climate resilient water infrastructures.
“…Access to and availability of clean, potable water, as we know, is indispensable to our sustainable development aspirations. As such, it behooves us to ensure that we improve the climate resilience of the water sector across the Region”, Dr. Colin Young emphasised.
This week’s on-line peer-peer session is the start of a series of more training, focusing on climate resilient subjects, which continues through the month of June, to be hosted by SOFRECO consultants. From June 7 – 18, 2021, a 5-module training program will be conducted twice for the 1st level: a training of trainers from water utilities, relevant CBOs, NGOs, Government officials prior to a 2nd level training of local communities to be organized with the materials developed by the Project. The 1st level training program will provide participants with information, technical/practical knowledge and considerations on the following themes:
- Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) & Climate Risk Management
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Community-based water supply and sanitation
- Infrastructure and Nature-based solutions (NbS)
- Community engagement, dialogue and training
The Regional SOPs will contribute to the improvement of water security in CARIFORUM member states, and will also account for aspects of governance, while addressing adaptation measures in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), including water collection, and consumption – to reduce the conditions that foster exploitation of the resource, and water utility planning.
This training activity falls under the Intra-ACP GCCA + Project being implemented by the CCCCC. The Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme is an EU-Funded initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Groups of states funded by the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and falling under the policy and strategic framework of the global GCCA+ flagship initiative. It specifically targets ACP Member States, helping them to tackle climate change as a challenge to their development.
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre coordinates the region’s response to climate change. Officially opened in August 2005, the Centre is the key node for information on climate change issues and the region’s response to managing and adapting to climate change. We maintain the Caribbean’s most extensive repository of information and data on climate change specific to the region, which in part enables us to provide climate change-related policy advice and guidelines to CARICOM member states through the CARICOM Secretariat. In this role, the Centre is recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Environment Programme, and other international agencies as the focal point for climate change issues in the Caribbean. The Centre is also a United Nations Institute for Training and Research recognised Centre of Excellence. Go to www.caribbeanclimate.bz for more information.
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