The increasing intensity and frequency with which disasters are being experienced worldwide demonstrate the critical need to enhance disaster risk management. Indeed, high-profile, largescale disasters are increasing global consciousness of the need to strengthen national and regional capacities to mitigate, respond to and manage such events (Ferris and Petz, 2013). Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean are particularly vulnerable for a number of reasons and face a range of disasters, both natural and man-made (UNDP, 2011). As the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recognized, Caribbean countries are vulnerable to a range of hazards due to, and often exacerbated by, their “...geology, tectonic setting, location and topography,” as well as their “...poor land use and environmental management practices” (UNDP, 2011). 

Disasters in the Caribbean, often cause millions of dollars in losses to infrastructure and to economic and social sectors of countries in the region. These can be seen as an opportunity to create innovative and long-term solutions such as reconstruction of better infrastructure that can withstand hazards, new sources of financing including: mobilizing innovative risk financing tools to better manage fiscal risks and leveraging the private sector in finding solutions.