OECS States to Address Environmental Migration Challenges Using the Human Security Approach

Countries in the Eastern Caribbean are being poised to improve existing strategies for facilitating environmental migration – movement of people because of a natural disaster or environmental change, with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and other organizations.

Noting the vulnerability of the region to both slow and sudden-onset natural disasters, the national policy frameworks and strategies of 11 OECS Member States including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,  will be assessed for policy coherence regarding disaster displacement and environmental migration using the lens of human security. Human security focuses on protecting people from severe and widespread threats and situations.

According to the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS), it involves using processes that build on people’s strengths and aspirations while creating political, social, environmental, economic, military, and cultural systems that together provide the framework for protection and empowerment and give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood, and dignity.

The regional project is being managed by IOM Dominica in collaboration with the OECS, with funding from UNTFHS. However, a range of other partners are being engaged in the implementation process including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Platform on Disaster Displacement and national experts in select member states. “Partnership is critical to the success of this project,” said Viola Pascal, IOM Project Coordinator.

The Caribbean is at risk to so many hazards it is impossible for any one country or any one organization to mitigate those risks alone. That is why it is so important to ensure the policy in place can appropriately guide us in our efforts as a region. Adequate policy frameworks can help to reduce harm and create the conditions in which mobility can be a positive strategy for adaptation.

Viola Pascal, IOM Dominica Project Coordinator

In the upcoming weeks, the project team will engage with several national stakeholders to gain local perspectives of the challenges and opportunities that exist to improve frameworks for migration management in the context of environment degradation and climate change using the human security approach.

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