For nearly ten years the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) in St Lucia has collaborated with many agencies in the area of Business Plannining for Disasters commonly reffered to as Business Continuity Planning.

Through the United States Agency for International Development - Caribbean Open Trade Support [USAID-COTS], NEMO will be hosting two- one day sessions on Business Continuity Planning in St Lucia, March 18 - 19. At the end of the day Agencies will be equipped with the necessay tools to complete a response plan.

The Caribbean Open Trade Support (COTS) program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Barbados representative office, is designed to facilitate the transition of member countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to compete more successfully in the global economy.

To this end over a four year period, COTS is working with governments, the private sector and non governmental organizations:

- To enhance private sector growth,

- Improve the business and investment climate,

- Increase resilience to natural disasters and

- Protect the sub-region's biodiversity resources.

Under the Risk Reduction component, COTS will join forces with government, civil society and the private sector to develop and implement programs designed to improve the resilience of the economy to the impacts of disasters. These activities are designed to improve the ability of the countries to prepare for respond to and recover from disaster.

The Disaster Recovery training workshops are designed to share information and generate a commitment to an improved level of Disaster/Emergency planning in general and Recovery planning in particular.

The purpose of the workshop is to deliver appropriate Disaster Recovery training including the preparation of preparedness and response plans to government ministries and private sector entities in Antigua and Barbuda; Grenada; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Objectives of the workshop includes -

- Outline basic procedures for preparing Emergency/Disaster Plans

- Promote a common understanding of the concept, systems and procedures of Emergency /Disaster Recovery planning

- Provide templates and outlines of Recovery plans

- Discuss and clarify the inter-relationship between National Emergency /Disaster Planning arrangements and non-government Emergency/Disaster Recovery arrangements

- Provide advice and feedback for assessing existing Emergency/Disaster Recovery plans

- Promote a commitment to intersectoral action to enhance Emergency/Disaster Recovery planning

The desired outcomes will be as follows -

- A higher level of awareness of the importance of Emergency/Disaster planning

- Confirmation of the intention to improve contingency planning in all sectors for all major natural hazards

- Commitment to prepare Recovery plans where such plans are absent or review and update such plans where there exist

- Acceptance of the need to integrate contingency planning into organizational development arrangements

- Identification of mechanisms for future collaboration in Recovery Planning among all sectors

2007 was an active year for Saint Lucia as it faced fires, Hurricane Dean and a 7.3 earthquake, all collaborating to illustrate in a tangible manner the need for a Disaster Plan.