The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS is shifting from a reactive approach to disasters towards treating resilience as an economic and fiscal imperative, the Prime Minister said yesterday, as it marks Hurricane Dorian’s anniversary and the $3.4bn in damages and economic loss it inflicted.

Philip Davis KC said the 2019 category five hurricane remains a defining lesson for a country increasingly vulnerable to storms, flooding, drought and other disruptions.

“Over the past decade, The Bahamas has experienced repeated major hurricanes, with Dorian alone causing an estimated $3.4bn in damages and losses – the costliest disaster in our nation’s history,” Mr Davis said.

“But behind those numbers are families whose lives were disrupted. Their livelihoods interrupted. And their communities changed forever. Seven years on, our story cannot end with loss. It must be a story of learning, adaptation and resiliency.”

Mr Davis said the Government has since fundamentally changed its disaster risk management architecture, including establishing the Disaster Risk Management Authority, strengthening disaster risk financing through the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), Disaster Emergency Fund and Disaster Prevention Fund, and developing a national Disaster Risk Financing Strategy.

The Government has also established the Climate, Environment and Advisory Unit within the Office of the Prime Minister to strengthen co-ordination around climate change and resilience.

Mr Davis said the objective is to ensure the next major shock does not translate automatically into a fiscal crisis. “The next shock may not look like Dorian,” he said. “It may be another hurricane, but it could also be extreme flooding, drought, wildfire, a major disruption to our telecommunications, electricity or water systems, or another crisis that cascades across sectors.

“That is why disaster risk management is more than emergency response. It is economic policy. It is infrastructure policy. It is climate policy.”

McKell Bonaby, minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for disaster risk management, said the Government has begun building financial buffers that will allow The Bahamas to act before and immediately after a disaster without placing excessive pressure on public finances.

He said the Disaster Prevention Fund is providing resources for proactive measures including strengthening shelters, improving communications and early warning systems and building community preparedness.

The Government has also capitalised the Disaster Emergency Fund with $1m to ensure resources are available for immediate response when a disaster strikes.

“Together with insurance protection, contingent credit facilities and other financial instruments, we are building a layered system of disaster risk financing because a natural disaster should not automatically become a fiscal disaster for our country,” Mr Bonaby said.

He stressed that the challenge is particularly acute for The Bahamas because of its geography. “This is especially important for an archipelagic nation like ours,” Mr Bonaby said. “Resilience is not an option, and resilience in The Bahamas must be comprehensive. It must be shared equally among the inhabitants of all of our islands.”

The Government’s approach also recognises that resilience cannot be achieved through funding and infrastructure alone. Mr Bonaby pointed to the completion of the Abaco Multi-Purpose Hurricane Shelter, designed to provide protection during Category Five storms, as an example of the infrastructure investments required. But he said resilience also requires trained personnel, informed communities, reliable communications and effective leadership and co-ordination.

“Building a more resilient Bahamas requires partnerships,” Mr Bonaby said, citing co-operation across government, the private sector, churches, civil society, communities and regional and international institutions.

Among those partners is the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which has worked with The Bahamas over the past seven years to strengthen disaster governance, financing and institutional capacity. Steven Collins, chief of operations for the IDB’s Bahamas country office, said the relationship has evolved beyond individual projects and financing arrangements into a broader partnership centred on resilience.

“We are here because partnership matters,” Mr Collins said. “The relationship between the Government of The Bahamas and the IDB is not defined by a single project, financing instrument or moment in time.”

He added that The Bahamas has made significant progress since Dorian, strengthening institutions, advancing legislation, improving governance arrangements, expanding disaster risk financing and adopting a more comprehensive approach to managing risk.

“What is remarkable is not simply how The Bahamas recovered, but how it transformed,” Mr Collins said. “Partnership is not simply about financing; it is about listening, learning, and responding together.”

He described Dorian’s seven-year anniversary not as the end of the IDB’s involvement but as “a checkpoint on a longer journey”.

“There is more to do to strengthen financial resilience, more to safeguard critical infrastructure, more to ensure that resilience is embedded across all sectors and institutions,” Mr Collins said.

Mr Davis said the fundamental lesson from Dorian is that resilience cannot be separated from economic development. “Every dollar invested in resilience today reduces the cost of rebuilding tomorrow,” he said. “Every investment in resilient infrastructure protects lives and the progress we have worked so hard to achieve.”

He acknowledged that The Bahamas cannot eliminate the risks facing its islands or guarantee that another Dorian will not occur, but said it can control its level of preparedness.

“We cannot control when the next disaster arrives, but we can determine how ready we are, how effectively we respond, and how quickly we recover,” Mr Davis said.