This week the island’s health emergency and disaster risk management processes were assessed using the Strategic Tool for Assessing Risks (STAR) toolkit. Stakeholders representing the public sector and statutory organizations converged at the Cocoa Palm Hotel for a three-day workshop facilitated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), from Aug. 22 to 24.

STAR is a comprehensive toolkit that was developed under the International Health Regulations Monitoring and Evaluation Framework that enables countries to strategically plan and prioritize health emergency and disaster risk management activities. The workshop was conducted collaboratively by the Ministry of Health, PAHO and the World Bank who provided funding through the OECS Regional Health Project.

Addressing the workshop participants, Dr. Stella Chungong, Director of the WHO’s Health Security Department, Emergency Programme, stated: “The COVID-19 Pandemic demonstrated that the world was not prepared to deal with a pandemic of this magnitude. This event has had devastating consequences that has affected not only the health sector but the economy, international trade, social life, politics and many other areas of society. It is therefore imperative that we consider how to prepare, prevent, detect, respond to and recover from health emergencies.”

Senior Medical Officer for Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Gail Gajadhar, underscored the importance of proper planning in disaster management.

“Saint Lucia is currently classified as an upper-middle income country, but we all know that we don’t have those resources. STAR will allow us to look at the risks and prioritize what we have so that we can effectively use resources during disaster responses.

Also addressing the workshop via a virtual address was acting PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Dr. Prabhjot Singh.

During the STAR workshop participants engaged in several activities such as compiling and sharing relevant existing data and information; drafting and presenting the country’s context; and sharing results and making recommendations.