Vulnerable farming communities targeted for disaster resilience project

RESIDENTS, especially farmers, in five vulnerable fishing and farming communities in St Elizabeth, Manchester and Westmoreland will this year be provided with the necessary resources and training that will enable them to better manage and prepare for disasters.

The disaster resilience capacities of the communities of Flagaman and Pisgah in St Elizabeth, Devon and Asia in Manchester, and Whitehouse in Westmoreland will be significantly developed and strengthened under the Building Disaster Resilient Rural Communities (BDRC) and Livelihood Project, which was launched Tuesday by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) at its head office in Kingston.

The project, which is being jointly funded by ODPEM and the United States Agency for International Development, is aimed at improving the competitiveness of farmers by developing their capacity to adapt to climate change through interventions geared at building resilience to climate stresses.

The key components of the one-year project, which began in May, include community training; community disaster management planning; adaptation of the BDRC toolkit and information management; community disaster risk reduction and mitigation; livelihood protection measures; as well as the strengthening of partnerships, and building the institutional capacity of communities.

To read more, please click the link provided, Vulnerable farming communities targeted for disaster resilience project 

Adapted from Jamaica Observer.