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The Caribbean Strong Summit: Building Resilience With Equity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Leslie Maas Cortés ,
Melanie Z. Rodriguez-Rivera ,
James J. James  and
José F Cordero
Leslie Maas Cortés*
Affiliation:
Puerto Rico Hurricane Response Hub Technical Assistance Center at the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Melanie Z. Rodriguez-Rivera
Affiliation:
Puerto Rico Hurricane Response Hub Technical Assistance Center at the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, San Juan, Puerto Rico
James J. James
Affiliation:
Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Onancock, Virginia
José F Cordero
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Leslie Maas, Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, PO Box 363475, San Juan, Puerto Rico00936-3475 (e-mail: lmaas@prsciencetrust.org).
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Abstract

The objective of the Caribbean Strong Summit was to plan an intersectoral summit to address the equity of community health and resilience for disaster preparedness, response and recovery and develop a set of integrated and actionable recommendations for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Region post Hurricanes Irma and Maria. A three-day meeting was convened with a wide range of community, organizational and private sector leaders along with representatives from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, the Americas, and global experts to generate recommendations for enhanced resilience based upon lessons learned and evidence-based approaches. More than 500 participants from the region gave 104 presentations with recommendations for resilience. Over 150 recommendations were generated and ranked for importance and actionability by participants. A representative sample of these are presented along with five major themes for building health resilient communities in the Caribbean. This summit was successful in compiling a set of integrated recommendations from more than 19 diverse sectors and in defining five major thematic areas for future work to enhance resilience for all types of future disasters. A follow-up meeting should be planned to continue this discussion and to showcase work that has been accomplished in these areas. A complete set of the recommendations from the Caribbean Strong Summit and their analysis and compilation would be published and should serve as a foundational effort to enhance preparedness and resiliency towards future disasters in the Caribbean.

Keywords

resilienceequitysocial determinants of healthPuerto RicoCaribbean Strongdisastershurricanes
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 155 - 157
Copyright
© 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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References

REFERENCES

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