Lisa Vaughan, the Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) Division’s Director of International Programs and Program Manager for Adaptation Sciences, joined NOAA Administrator Dr. Richard Spinrad and eleven other experts from across the agency in a Workshop on Climate Services to Support Adaptation and Resilience in the Caribbean (April 19-21, 2023; Bridgetown, Barbados). It is a diverse region with important ties to the United States from a scientific, social, economic, and policy perspective. NOAA has a long history of collaboration in the region, and a close working relationship with Barbados.
The workshop was co-convened by NOAA and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), with primary support from the U.S. Department of State (DoS) and additional sponsorship from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation and Agriculture (IICA). Lisa Vaughan, along with CPO’s 2022 Sea Grant Fellow, Andrea Miralles-Barboza, were part of the workshop steering committee. In its role as a specialized technical institution functioning within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), CIMH is the leading climate services institution in the broader Caribbean, working on a regional scale to foster engagement among climate experts from governments, universities, and stakeholders from vulnerable sectors (e.g., agriculture, water resource management, public health, tourism) in order to consider the implications of current and evolving climate conditions. As part of a broader partnership between NOAA and DoS focused on resilience, the workshop addressed the following themes:
– Resilience in the Caribbean: Challenges, Needs and Opportunities
– Accessing Finance to Enhance Regional and National Resilience Efforts
– Early Warning Information Systems
– Climate Information Systems and Supporting Diverse Communities
– The Role of Ocean Observations for Coordinated Marine Governance
– Building Climate Literacy and the Next Generation of Practitioners
– Climate Services Financing and Sector Alignment Across the Region.
For more information, contact Lisa Vaughan.
Image credit: CIMH
