Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, 21 October, 2011 – The President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Warren Smith, will open the 6th meeting of the World Forum of Catastrophe Programmes (WFCP) in Jamaica on Monday, October 24, 2011. The 6th meeting of the WFCP is being hosted by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which is a member of the WFCP and the only member from the developing world.

The World Forum of Catastrophe Programmes came into being in San Francisco in 2006 at the commemoration of the earthquake that struck that city in 1906. The WFCP is an informal platform created initially as a mechanism for the exchange of information and experiences among systems covering natural catastrophe insurance involving any form of public participation. Another fundamental aim of the WFCP is to make select information and expertise available to bodies and institutions in other countries or other international agencies, as well as to private specialists and researchers interested in this category of insurance.

The main objectives of the meeting are:

• To share experiences, observations and lessons learned from major catastrophes in 2010 and 2011 which affected member organisations
• To learn from WFCP members about new developments in their respective organisations –new methods, projects and initiatives whose implementation could be undertaken profitably by other member entities
• To share the hazard and risk landscape of the Caribbean and the initiatives being undertaken to reduce vulnerability of these small island and coastal states, particularly in the context of climate change
• To enhance knowledge about CCRIF as the first and only multi-national risk pool in the world – its achievements, new initiatives and lessons learned

Persons from various countries around the world will attend the 3-day meeting, including France, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, USA, and Romania. Presenters at the conference will include, among others: Mr. Ronald Jackson from Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Mr. Jeremy Collymore from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and Dr. Simon Young from Caribbean Risk Managers, the Facility Supervisor of CCRIF.
The sessions will include presentations on the recovery efforts and lessons learned from major catastrophes in 2010 and 2011 – focusing on the earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan and Haiti; experiences and lessons learned from the Caribbean; and new programmes to increase countries’ resilience against the impacts of climate change.

This meeting provides an excellent opportunity for organisations involved in disaster management to engage in discussion with catastrophe insurance entities, possibly resulting in increased options for disaster risk management.

About CCRIF: CCRIF is a not-for-profit risk pooling facility, owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean for Caribbean governments. It is designed to limit the financial impact of catastrophic hurricanes and earthquakes to Caribbean governments by quickly providing short-term liquidity when a policy is triggered. It is the world’s first and, to date, only regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving Caribbean governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake and hurricane catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing. CCRIF represents a paradigm shift in the way governments treat risk, with Caribbean governments leading the way in pre-disaster planning. CCRIF was developed through funding from the Japanese Government, and was capitalised through contributions to a multi-donor Trust Fund by the Government of Canada, the European Union, the World Bank, the governments of the UK and France, the Caribbean Development Bank and the governments of Ireland and Bermuda, as well as through membership fees paid by participating governments.

Sixteen governments are members of the fund: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands..

For more information, contact Elizabeth Emanuel at pr@ccrif.org or visit the CCRIF website at www.ccrif.org