The Bahamas’ lessons in resilience will shape the RP26

A new hurricane season is gathering strength across the Atlantic. Hurricane Erin has already brushed the islands, its track uncertain at first, but its passing was enough to sharpen awareness across The Bahamas. The storm has moved on, yet the message remains: peak season is here, and vigilance is essential. For Bahamians, this is more than routine-years of lived experience have taught that a change in the wind or a sudden radio update can mean the difference between disruption and disaster.

That understanding was seared into the national consciousness in September 2019. Hurricane Dorian stalled over Abaco and Grand Bahama for nearly two days, tearing apart homes, destroying infrastructure, and flooding entire neighborhoods. Losses exceeded US $3.4 billion-91 percent in the private sector. The damage was physical, but the lesson was institutional. Dorian revealed that resilience could no longer be defined by response alone; it had to be built into the country's governance, economy, and daily life.

From that reckoning came the Disaster Risk Management Act, passed in 2022 and effective since 2024. It brought disaster governance under one roof-the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Authority-and mandated the full cycle of disaster risk management: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. It created two national funds-one for prevention, one for emergencies-which it is aiming to finance in part by dormant bank accounts in partnership with the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

The reforms are designed to reach every corner of the archipelago, especially the Family Islands, where smaller, more isolated communities face the Atlantic's full force without the buffers of urban infrastructure. Here, resilience is not an abstract goal-it is the foundation for survival and continuity. Under the new law, each island administrator must develop a local disaster plan with direct community input. These plans are more than documents; they are agreements on how neighbors will communicate, where they will shelter, and how they will recover together.

Across the islands, the DRM Authority has launched a new generation of Regional Disaster Readiness Exercises (RDRX), bringing simulations directly to the Family Islands. From Inagua to Exuma, Cat Island to South Andros, local responders train alongside national authorities and international partners such as US Northern Command, the US Coast Guard and the Bahamas Red Cross. These drills test every layer of the system, from shelter management to communications, making preparedness a lived practice rather than a plan on paper.

In Abaco, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) joined the DRM Authority and community leaders in one of these tabletop exercises, underscoring that preparedness must be inclusive, locally led, and continuous. Combined with the annual National Disaster Readiness Exercise (NDRX), which stress-tests systems at the national level, these efforts are shifting disaster management from a centralized model in Nassau to one rooted in communities-embedding resilience across the archipelago.

It is this transformation that sets the stage for The Bahamas to host the IX Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean (RP26). Announced in June 2025 during the VIII Global Platform in Geneva, RP26 will bring together leaders, practitioners, and communities from across the region to exchange lessons, measure progress toward the Sendai Framework, and accelerate inclusive, multi-hazard approaches.

"RP26 will allow others to gain insight from the strides The Bahamas has made in strengthening disaster risk governance, while also giving us the chance to learn from our counterparts and to amplify the voices of Small Island Developing States and Caribbean countries on the global stage," said DRM Authority's Managing Director Aarone Sargent. "Our transformation is anchored in reforms like the Disaster Risk Management Act of 2022, which set us on a path toward a more proactive and comprehensive approach to resilience. Our Regional Disaster Readiness Exercises reflect that shift, moving us beyond a Nassau-centered view to a whole-of-country, whole-of-society model of disaster management. Working alongside people on the ground in the islands has been especially inspiring-their dedication to community reminds us that these exercises are not only about strengthening local capacity, but also about learning from their lived knowledge and experience." He continued, "We were glad to have UNDRR with us in Abaco to see that work firsthand, and look forward to deepening those exchanges on the road to RP26."

For The Bahamas, RP26 is not only an opportunity to showcase progress; it is a chance to influence how the region understands and governs resilient recovery and disaster risk. The country's recent reforms-its strengthened institutions, its commitment to sustainable DRR financing, its focus on local empowerment-offer a model for translating the lessons of a crisis into lasting systems.

"The Bahamas has made significant progress in strengthening disaster risk governance, demonstrating how national leadership, institutional reform, and community engagement can come together to build resilience," said Saskia Carusi, deputy chief of UNDRR - Regional office for the Americas and the Caribbean. "RP26 will provide an important platform to showcase these achievements and, at the same time, to advance a shared agenda for the Caribbean-where lessons learned in The Bahamas can help shape a more inclusive and sustainable path for the entire region," she added.

As Erin's passage reminds the region of its shared vulnerability, The Bahamas offers a different reminder: that resilience can be built, tested, and practiced before the storm. Hosting RP26 is more than symbolic. It signals that leadership in disaster risk reduction belongs to those who know both the cost of unpreparedness and the value of acting early.