The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Cooperatives, in collaboration with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the Italian International Centre on Environmental Monitoring (CIMA) Research Foundation, under the overall coordination of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and with the financial support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), will be hosting the launch of the Resilient Environment and Agricultural Caribbean Habitats (REACH) project and National Round-Table on April 1, 2019.

The venue of the one-day workshop will be Bel Jou Hotel, located at the top of La Pansee in Castries. Registration for the workshop starts at 8:30 a.m.

The objectives of the National Round Table are: to formally launch the REACH Project in Saint Lucia; to increase awareness of the REACH project and engender interest, engagement and support for the project; to identify opportunities, challenges and best practices to implement a two-way information system between data collection agencies and their recipients/end users in the farming communities to support disaster prevention and preparedness in farming communities; to identify information, data and experiences on common problems to be addressed in regard to data collection, collation, analysis and dissemination, as well as disaster preparedness mitigation and management in Saint Lucia; to review the proposed criteria for pilot community beneficiaries selection; to produce a draft set of indicators and a built-in monitoring system for the proposed two-way communication system; and to understand possible multipurpose applications of hydro-meteorological information to ensure adequate information for both agricultural stakeholders and emergency management organizations.