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Caribbean: Appeal No. MAA49001 - Annual Report

Countries
Bahamas
+ 9 more
Sources
IFRC
Publication date

This report covers the period of 01/01/2008 to 31/12/2008 of a two-year planning and appeal Process

In brief

Goal: National Societies in the Caribbean region are implementing efficient, responsive and focused programmes that contribute to improving the lives of vulnerable people. These programmes are aligned with the International Federation's Global Agenda, which sets out four broad goals to meet the Federation's mission to "improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity".

Programme Summary:

2008 was an extremely busy year for the region. The Caribbean Regional Representation (CRR) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and the newly established Regional Representation for the Latin Caribbean (LCRR) in Santo Domingo, covering Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti faced various emergency operations, in addition to the upscale in activities undertaken by the various programmes of the Regional Representations.

The 2008 hurricane season saw the passing of several hurricanes and tropical storms in the region, leaving many countries affected and three International Appeals launched in response, as well as an International Appeal for the response to the flooding experienced in Suriname. During the first six months of 2008, the Caribbean Regional Representation (CRR) completed the International Appeal that was launched in response to hurricane Dean, focussing on recovery activities, which saw a regional training on good practice for recovery activities, prepositioning of stocks and logistics training, the impact of which was demonstrated in the response by a number of Red Cross Societies in the 2008 hurricane season.

Haiti and Cuba were also hit by a series of hurricanes and tropical storms. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have left a path of destruction in the two major islands of the Caribbean: Cuba and Hispaniola. As a result, two Emergency Appeals were launched. The major relief operation implemented in Haiti has changed substantially the set up of the LCRR as a result of re-opening a full fledged office in Port au Prince and Gonaives where a FACT team and several ERUs were deployed. Objectives of the emergency appeal in Cuba have focused on relief, temporary shelter, livelihoods (pilot micro-projects) and strengthening of capacity of the National Society. In Haiti, the emergency appeal has focused on relief, temporary shelter, health, water and sanitation, long term reconstruction and strengthening of the capacity of the National Society. Those two major operations have substantially slowed down the normal programming for Cuba and Haiti in the second half of 2008.

Also, the increased investments made in the disaster risk reduction programme continue to show their value, as National Societies deployed Community Disaster Response Teams (CDRT) and National Intervention Teams (NIT) to fulfil a key role in the preparedness and response to disasters in their countries. The programme continues to expand its activities and reach, to meet the requirements and needs of National Societies and the vulnerable communities they serve. In addition, the Federation has invested heavily in increasing partnerships with key partners in the region during this year to ensure that efforts have regional buy-in and support of key external stakeholders at both the national and regional level.

The regional health programme also had a key focus on investing in new partnerships to support the response to the HIV epidemic in the region. In the first half year of 2008, support to people living with HIV (PLHIV) was increased, as the Federation operationalized its partnership with the Caribbean Regional Network of PLHIV (CRN+), in order to support peer counselling. 2008 also saw the launch of the Global Alliance on HIV in four Caribbean countries: Belize, Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica.

In the organizational development (OD) programme, CBF funding enabled greater support to National Societies in the region on volunteer management and to the development of youth in the Red Cross Movement. Volunteer Management training took place in four National Societies during 2008. In September a successful regional youth forum was held in Guyana, which saw the establishment of the youth network, with a coordinating committee which has since been working hard to help develop the network as well as ensure the voice of youth is taken into account in the region.

While there have been many positive developments during 2008, the key challenge for the Federation is to provide the tailored service the different National Societies in the Caribbean require. While there is great strength in the regional approach to programmes, which needs to be maintained, the National Societies have varied needs and require different levels of support to sustain their development and access partner support, where resources remain stretched to provide this level of service. An important contribution was made from the Spanish Red Cross which has helped support capacity-building and development in three National Societies in the region, while other National Societies have been supported through accessing the key Federation OD capacity-building funds.

Financial situation: The total 2008 budget is CHF 3,173,835 (USD 2,913,673 or EUR 2,099,819), of which 64 per cent was covered by the end of 2008. Some variances are reflected due to the need to allocate additional funds to carry out Organizational Development activities. Also, the CRR is working towards taking advantage of other types of training activities such as exchanges and internships, in addition to workshops.