The Tribune

A Nassau-based cloud services provider has taken part in a World Bank-organised regional conference on disaster resilience and combating climate change.

Cloud Carib was among organisations from 20 Caribbean countries who gathered in Bridgetown, Barbados, at the Understanding Risk (UR) Caribbean conference. Hosted by the World Bank in partnership with the Barbados government, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the European Union (EU), the week-long conference brought together leaders in risk and disaster management.

The Bahamas-based company held a panel discussion on Strategic approaches to infrastructure sustainability. The panel featured Cloud Carib’s Mark Arruda, vice-president of solutions; Shiva Bissessar, managing director of Pinaka Consulting; Ann Wyganowski, vice-president of HZX Business Continuity Planning; and Yohannes Kesete, senior disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank.

The discussion focused on the critical issues influencing infrastructure sustainability, ranging from physical to digital infrastructure, and addressed strategies on how to approach maintaining sustainability and resilience in a region where natural disasters are common and resources limited.

Cloud Carib also hosted a half-day workshop and training session led by Stelios Xeroudakis, its founder and chief technology officer; Mark Arruda; Eamon Sheehy, Cloud Carib’s director of public sector; and Ann Wyganowski.

“This event is timely,” said Mr Xeroudakis. “The region is looking for a path to better resiliency. The last few hurricane seasons have devastated the region, and with the current trends and impacts of climate change we expect the devastation to only increase.

“It is important the private sector and organisations like Cloud Carib be involved in this discussion. Our services offer entities, both public and private, the opportunity to improve their resiliency and reduce their risk profile.

The conference featured demonstrations hosted by the University of the West Indies, Harvard University, NASA, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Cloud Carib and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Mia Amor Mottley, the Barbados prime minister, said: “Failure to act is largely because we do not believe that the problem is important enough to require such action. That’s the hardest thing for us as Caribbean people to accept.

“It is our contention that it is only when moral and ethical leadership is given, both at the national level and the international level, that we must summon the courage to fight down these battles. Until such time, it is a form of idle entertainment for those who choose to watch. I pray that those of you gathered here will help us as policymakers understand the art of the possible.

“For you, as technicians more than anything else, will frame what is technically possible - whether at the level of infrastructure, science and technology, capacity to finance or general policy making.”