Country Sint Maarten
Region World wide
Duration Start 1 March, 2022 till 1 March, 2024
Field of expertise Developing Sustainable and Resilient Cities and Communities
Policy field(s) Natural Disaster management
Community development
Institutional development
Funding Expertise France
Project code 11455
St Maarten is frequently affected by various types of crisis such as hurricanes and floods, and has a high risk of earthquakes and tsunamis. Although its governments' crisis management has significantly improved since Irma, information management remains a weak spot in its crisis management system while this is the backbone of efficient coordination between all crisis teams. The ambition is to change this into a situation where information sharing between government entities is improved, self-sustaining crisis management training and education capacities are in place and maintained, crisis management capacity is strengthened with clear standard operating procedures for various types of crisis, and regional actors have endorsed shared principles for crisis coordination.

The wider objective of the project is to anchor the long-term resilience and self-sufficiency of the Government of St Maarten in the field of crisis management.
The specific objective is to improve capacities of government entities in St Maarten in the fields of crisis management, information management and human resources and capacities in order to anticipate and adapt to crises, provide for a swift response in future calamities; and to work towards self-sufficiency in the field of crisis management training by setting up a knowledge centre.

The technical assistance provided aims at delivering and realising the following results:
• O1.1: Netcentric information management in use with new function profiles and a functional back office and information system;
• O2.1: Training and education strategy under implementation;
• O3.1: Standard operating procedures for various types of crises (scale, severity, type) are developed and trained;
• O4.1: Proposal for regional crisis coordination is completed.

The project is all about technical assistance and capacity building. It proposes a multi-level support trajectory that works towards self-sufficiency by enhancing individual, institutional and regional capacities. It also has a specific eye for embedding results by ensuring strategies and policies are adopted and ownership of what has been achieved lies at the Government of St Maarten.