18 The public sector has a critical role to play in any crisis, emergency, or disaster situation. Tropical storms and hurricanes are perennial, pernicious hazards in the Caribbean. The events of the 2017 hurricane season in which at least eight of CARICAD’s 17 member states were directly affected by two major hurricanes, illustrate the importance of the public sector being well prepared for such events in future. In the smallest of the member states the public sector may well be the most prominent provider of healthcare, education, security, utility and communication services. The public sector takes the lead in matters of national security and public safety. The public sector also takes the lead in matters of welfare and public assistance. The capacity of the public sector for post-hurricane Response and Recovery may determine the overall effectiveness of the Recovery effort. CARICAD recently promulgated a Guide for Public Sector Managers for Post-Hurricane Recovery Planning and Management. It is intended as a reference document for senior managers in the public sectors of CARICAD member states. It is also intended as a tool for capacity building for staff at all levels based on CARICAD’s mantra for crises — Prepare, Perform, Transform. The Guide provides information from the concept of a disaster to the priority actions and activities that are needed to lead a Recovery effort after a hurricane impact. It includes information that stresses the importance of Leadership, Management, Coordination and Teamwork to achieve the agreed priorities. The information was developed after extensive research and drawing on the experience of some of the most knowledgeable disaster managers in the Caribbean region. We have deliberately made the suggestions operational and practical. Many of the practices we advocate can be attested to by our own team based on their experiences. We hope that public sector managers will keep the Guide as a constant reference during the hurricane season and beyond. We also hope that they will use it to help to prepare their Ministries, departments or agencies for the reality of hurricanes, this year and in the years ahead. The Guide is laid out in such a manner that managers can refer to the sections and subsections that may be most relevant to their needs and interests. It is also written in a manner that allows managers to copy the pages with practical suggestions and tips as a quick reference in a separate folder. We are promulgating the Guide at the start of the 2020 hurricane season in the hope that public sector managers will use the lead time ahead of the peak of the season thoroughly familiarise themselves with the contents and to share the Guide with many colleagues. The CARICAD Schema for Post-Hurricane Recovery Management (2017) is also presented here. P ost-hurricane Recovery is a protracted, multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral, multi-component, multi-agency effort to restore a community affected by a hurricane to an acceptable level of normalcy. It is intended not only to restore life as it was but to make the community more Resilient to hazards of all kinds in future. It is costly and fraught with chaos, conflict and misunderstanding. It is a complex process that is sometimes difficult to grasp in its entirety. When there is a common understanding of the conceptual framework for Recovery there is less misunderstanding and confusion and much more collaboration, coordination and cooperation and therefore overall efficiency and effectiveness. That common understanding is critical for all key actors in the process. Public sector managers are the usual leaders of the process in a structural setting such as a Recovery Task Force. The Schema shown on the next page was developed by CARICAD as a tool to create stronger agreement and greater clarity of the process of post-hurricane recovery. It provides as a “single-page view”, a schematic that shows the process in logical, connected relationships of role, structure, systems, skills, outputs and deliverables.
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