Strengthening Private Sector Engagement in Early Warning Systems: Caribbean Leaders Convene in Barbados

Regional and international partners convened in Barbados for a two-day workshop focused on strengthening private sector engagement in Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (MHEWS) across the Caribbean.

The workshop was hosted by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the Caribbean Chambers of Commerce (CARICHAM), with support from the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Caribbean Initiative and the European Union Caribbean Resilience Programme (EU-CA-RES).  

The engagement brought together private sector representatives, Chambers of Commerce, ARISE members, national disaster management agencies, meteorological services, and regional institutions to address a key gap: the limited and uneven integration of businesses into early warning systems.

Discussions focused on how the private sector contributes across the full early warning value chain—from risk information and data to communication, operations, and response—and what is required to move from informal participation to structured collaboration.

Participants worked across the four pillars of Early Warnings for All—risk knowledge; monitoring and forecasting; warning dissemination; and preparedness and response—alongside governance, to identify priority actions, roles, and institutional linkages for private sector engagement.

The workshop will contribute to the development of regional guidelines for private sector engagement in MHEWS, grounded in practical experience and aligned with national and regional disaster risk management frameworks.  

ARISE networks and CARICHAM members will continue to support the translation of these outcomes into action, including strengthening business continuity, supply chain resilience, and coordinated response mechanisms across the region.