Review and Enhancement of the Caribbean Community Risk Information Tool (CCRIT) for CDEMA Participating States

The project is reviewing and enhancing the Caribbean Community Risk Information Tool (CCRIT) as well as applying the enhanced tool in five CDEMA Participating States.  This tool allows decision makers to objectively select communities for interventions to increase their resilience. The creation of the CCRIT was driven by the need for evidence-based information for decision making. The tool assigns a Risk Score to a community based on the measurement of the community’s Hazard Exposure, Coping Capacity and Vulnerability. CCRIT was built on the foundation of the Strategic Targeting Methodology (STM) developed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).  Findings from the application of the STM revealed a high level of subjective which started initiated the transformation of the STM into the enhanced CCRIT.  The enhanced CCRIT, a robust, simple, user-friendly tool, uses quantitative geospatial data and qualitative community socio-demographic data to:

• identify potential hazards and associated socio-economic vulnerabilities that can affect the respective communities
• assist in ascertaining the causative factors of disasters in the study area
• aid in establishing the most at-risk communities in the country
• pinpointing of underlying disaster risk drivers including hazard exposure, socio-economic vulnerabilities and coping capacity strategies