AGENDA
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE TRACKS
CDM 14 Conference Tracks
The 14th Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM14) CDM Road to Resilience – Checkpoint 2026: Resilient Sectors, Sustainable Communities, Safer States December 7-12, 2026
Resilience & Disaster Governance
Sessions on policy, governance, early warning systems, post-disaster recovery, and systemic performance.
Innovation & Technology for Resilience
Practical tech solutions, research, Resilience Innovation Village, applied tools, and private-public partnerships.
Health & Social Infrastructure
Ensuring continuity of schools, hospitals, and social services; operational endurance during crises.
Tourism & Workforce Resilience
Protecting physical assets, workforce management, operational continuity, and sector-specific recovery strategies.
Finance, Investment & Regional Coordination
Panels on financing mechanisms, investment strategies, inter-agency coordination, and regional integration.
Youth Engagement & Participation
Sessions emphasizing youth perspectives, community-based response, trust, and behavioral execution.
CDM 14 Draft Agenda
AGENDA BY DAY
Day 1 – Opening, Governance & Resilience Systems
Theme: Checkpoint Zero – The Melissa Test: When Recovery Collides with the Next Season
DAY 1
09:00 AM – 09:45 AM
OPENING CEREMONY
- Session Title: Opening Ceremony + Cultural Segment: “Resilience Is Identity”
CDM 14 opens by framing resilience not as a technical exercise, but as a matter of identity, sovereignty, and survival.
The Caribbean’s lived experience of repeated shocks has exposed the unsustainability of linear recovery models. The ceremony integrates cultural performance to underscore that heritage, community, and continuity are foundational to resilience, not peripheral.
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DAY 1
09:45 AM – 10:15 AM
OPENING KEYNOTE
- Session Title: From Vulnerability to Strategic Power: How the Caribbean Builds Resilient States in an Age of Permanent and Evolving Risk
In this forward-looking keynote, President Ali will examine how the Caribbean can reposition itself from being defined by vulnerability to asserting strategic power in a world shaped by climate shocks, economic volatility, and geopolitical uncertainty.
Moving beyond traditional disaster response, he will explore how resilient states are intentionally built through integrated policy, climate-smart infrastructure, energy security, digital transformation, and regional coordination. The address will challenge leaders to treat resilience not as a defensive posture, but as a platform for competitiveness, sovereignty, and long-term prosperity in an era of permanent risk.
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DAY 1
10:15 AM – 10:45 AM
FEATURE SESSION
- Session Title: Resilience Innovation Village: Opening + Walkthrough
The Resilience Innovation Village is officially opened with a guided introduction to scale-ready technologies, applied research, community-driven models, and private-sector tools aligned to CDM priorities.
Delegates are oriented toward the Village as a working extension of the Conference, where partnerships can be formed and solutions matched to sector needs.
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DAY 1
10:45 AM – 11:15 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE
DAY 1
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
PLENARY SESSION
- Session Title: After-Action Governance in an Era of Escalating Regional Shocks
This plenary examines how recent extreme weather events across the Caribbean — including Hurricane Melissa (2025), Hurricane Beryl (2024), severe flooding episodes in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, and other high-impact storm systems — have exposed structural pressures within disaster governance systems.
These events, occurring in rapid succession and often overlapping with ongoing recovery efforts, have strained fiscal space, disrupted infrastructure endurance, and tested institutional coordination at national and regional levels. Rather than recounting impact statistics, the discussion focuses on systemic performance: where response systems held under pressure, where delays occurred in disbursement or logistics, how utilities and public services coped with cascading failures, and how preparedness cycles were compressed by repeated hazard exposure. By examining governance lessons emerging across several recent Caribbean events, the session will identify reforms required to strengthen financing activation, infrastructure continuity, inter-agency coordination, and accountability mechanisms — ensuring that regional systems are designed to withstand recurrent and multi-hazard shocks rather than single-event crises.
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DAY 1
12:30 PM – 01:30 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
DAY 1
01:45 PM – 02:45 PM
HIGH-LEVEL PANEL (with Youth)
- Session Title: Early Warnings to Early Action: Governance, Investment, and Behavioural Execution
Despite major investments in multi-hazard early warning systems across the Caribbean, disaster losses continue to rise — revealing a persistent gap between alert issuance and protective action. This high-level panel shifts the conversation from technology to execution.
It interrogates how governance structures, financing mechanisms, institutional protocols, and behavioural dynamics determine whether warnings translate into timely school closures, health system surge activation, evacuation compliance, and community-level preparedness. Rather than asking whether alerts were sent, the discussion examines who received them, who trusted them, who could act, and what institutional triggers failed to activate when minutes mattered most. Bringing together policymakers, technical agencies, educators, health leaders, and youth representatives, the session explores how to institutionalise early action through pre-agreed financing triggers, local government activation protocols, community-based response networks, and behaviourally informed risk communication strategies. Youth voices contribute lived experience and insight into trust, misinformation, and digital engagement, challenging conventional top-down warning models. The objective is to reframe early warning systems as integrated governance ecosystems — where investment, accountability, and community trust converge to reduce exposure, protect livelihoods, and measurably shorten recovery timelines.
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DAY 1
02:45 PM – 03:00 PM
AFTERNOON COFFEE
DAY 1
03:10 PM – 04:15 PM
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
- Session A Title: Critical Social Infrastructure: Schools & Hospitals That Must Not Fail
Schools and hospitals are more than public facilities — they are stabilising anchors during crisis and recovery.
Yet across the Caribbean, these institutions remain highly exposed to structural damage, utility failure, supply chain breakdowns, and prolonged downtime after major shocks. This session examines what it truly means for social infrastructure to be “non-negotiable” in disaster contexts. Moving beyond compliance with building codes, the discussion focuses on operational endurance: how schools resume learning within days, how hospitals sustain critical care under surge conditions, and how systems are designed to function even when power, water, and logistics networks are compromised. Panelists will explore retrofit financing, modular construction, decentralised energy integration, digital learning redundancy, medical supply chain buffering, and interoperable health data systems that support continuity under stress. Innovation will be framed not as optional enhancement, but as a necessity for resilience. The objective is to shift the region’s approach from rebuilding after failure to engineering continuity by design, ensuring that education and health services remain functional pillars of societal stability when the next disaster strikes.
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- Session B Title: Tourism Operations & Workforce Endurance: Securing the Sector’s Frontline
This session isolates the “on-the-ground” reality of managing a destination during a crisis.
It focuses on protecting the workforce, securing physical assets (hotels, ports), and managing brand reputation immediately after an impact to prevent a total shutdown of the sector.
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DAY 1
07:00 PM – 09:00 PM
COCKTAIL RECEPTION – PARTNER NETWORKING
DAY 2 - Tue, Dec 8, 2026 – Full Day
Theme: Systems that Fail vs Systems that Recover
DAY 2
09:00 AM – 10:00 AM
KEYNOTE FIRESIDE CHAT
- Session Title: De-Risking the Evolving Oil and Gas Economy: Regional Preparedness in an Era of Energy Transition
As oil and gas exploration expands across the Caribbean — particularly in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname — the region faces a dual reality: accelerating climate vulnerability alongside growing hydrocarbon exposure.
This session addresses operational, environmental, fiscal, and reputational risks linked to offshore drilling and petroleum transport. It moves beyond awareness to structured preparedness recommendations, including strengthening oil spill response systems, integrating hydrocarbon risks into disaster planning, and aligning energy expansion with transparent regulatory oversight. The objective is a coordinated, risk-informed approach to energy transition.
This session addresses operational, environmental, fiscal, and reputational risks linked to offshore drilling and petroleum transport. It moves beyond awareness to structured preparedness recommendations, including strengthening oil spill response systems, integrating hydrocarbon risks into disaster planning, and aligning energy expansion with transparent regulatory oversight. The objective is a coordinated, risk-informed approach to energy transition.
DAY 2
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE
Opportunity for participants to connect, exchange ideas, and discuss insights from the keynote session.
DAY 2
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
PANEL DISCUSSION
- Session Title: From Zoning to Zero Regret: Risk-Informed Planning and Nature-based Protection Systems
This session examines how unsafe land-use decisions and weak enforcement increase disaster exposure. It focuses on hazard mapping, zoning enforcement, and digital permitting systems.
It also highlights nature-based systems such as mangroves and reefs as critical infrastructure, exploring how ecosystem valuation can be embedded into planning and financing decisions.
It also highlights nature-based systems such as mangroves and reefs as critical infrastructure, exploring how ecosystem valuation can be embedded into planning and financing decisions.
DAY 2
11:50 AM – 12:50 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION A
- Session Title: Water Security Under Grid Failure: Redundancy, Storage, and Regional Utility Continuity
Focuses on designing water systems that remain functional during power outages through decentralisation, storage, and renewable integration. Explores regional coordination mechanisms and the role of utility networks in strengthening resilience.
DAY 2
11:50 AM – 12:50 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION B
- Session Title: Energy Resilience Beyond Diesel: Microgrids, Critical Loads, Blackstart
Examines distributed energy systems, microgrids, and recovery protocols to ensure rapid restoration of power to critical infrastructure. Energy resilience is positioned as disaster response capacity.
DAY 2
12:50 PM – 01:50 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
Participants can connect over lunch, discuss insights from concurrent sessions, and build networks across sectors.
DAY 2
02:00 PM – 03:00 PM
LEARNING LAB 1
- Session Title: “Recovery-Time Engineering” — Design for Days, Not Damage
Participants model recovery scenarios and redesign systems to prioritize rapid restoration.
DAY 2
02:00 PM – 03:00 PM
LEARNING LAB 2
- Session Title: Digital Permitting for Risk Reduction (Planning at Speed)
Explores digital tools and systems that improve planning enforcement and reduce unsafe approvals.
DAY 2
02:00 PM – 03:00 PM
LEARNING LAB 3
- Session Title: Utility Mutual Aid Playbooks (Regional Solidarity in Practice)
Focuses on structured mutual aid frameworks, cross-border support, and shared technical capacity.
DAY 2
03:00 PM – 03:15 PM
ESPRESSO BREAK
A short break for participants to refresh, network, and prepare for the next concurrent sessions.
DAY 2
03:20 PM – 04:20 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION A
- Session Title: Agriculture Shock-Proofing: Climate-smart + Market Continuity
Explores resilient agriculture systems, irrigation, and supply chain continuity to strengthen food security.
DAY 2
03:20 PM – 04:20 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION B
- Session Title: Civil Society as Force Multiplier: Trusted Messengers + Local Logistics
Examines how civil society can be formally integrated into disaster response systems and governance structures.
DAY 2
04:30 PM – 05:30 PM
BLITZ SHOWCASES
- Session Title: Solutions for Immediate Impact (5 Demos)
Includes demonstrations such as multi-hazard alert systems, microgrid setups, school retrofits, and digital flood models.
DAY 3 - Wed, Dec 9, 2026 – Full Day
Theme: Finance the Gap – Fund Resilience, Not Disasters
DAY 3
09:00 AM – 09:40 AM
KEYNOTE
- Session Title: Mobilising at the Speed of the Storm
Examines Jamaica’s rapid disaster response financing strategies and coordination mechanisms for fast resource mobilisation.
DAY 3
09:40 AM – 10:10 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE
Opportunity for participants to connect and discuss insights from the keynote session.
DAY 3
10:20 AM – 11:35 AM
PANEL DISCUSSION
- Session Title: Parametric + Sovereign Risk: Faster Liquidity After the Shock
Focuses on linking disaster financing tools to real-world delivery systems, ensuring funds reach affected populations quickly and effectively.
DAY 3
11:40 AM – 12:40 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION A
- Session Title: Tourism and Climate Resilience
Explores climate adaptation strategies for tourism infrastructure and ecosystems.
DAY 3
11:40 AM – 12:40 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION B
- Session Title: Health Financing Under Disaster Stress
Examines financial strategies to maintain healthcare services during crises.
DAY 3
11:40 AM – 1:15 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION C
- Session Title: Regional Dialogue on Disaster Displacement in the Caribbean (Closed-door Dialogue Powered by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, IDMC)
This closed-door regional dialogue will convene Caribbean government representatives, alongside technical partners, to advance a shared understanding of disaster displacement as a growing and complex risk across the region.
The session will examine the humanitarian, development, and climate dimensions of displacement, while drawing on regional risk profiles and global good practices to inform more coordinated and policy-relevant responses.
Through a facilitated exchange, participants will explore existing approaches, identify key data and policy gaps, and consider opportunities to strengthen integration of displacement into national and regional frameworks.
Designed to support open and candid discussion, the dialogue aims to contribute to more coherent regional action, improved use of data for decision-making, and strengthened collaboration between governments and technical partners.
DAY 3
12:40 PM – 01:40 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
Participants can connect over lunch and discuss insights from concurrent sessions.
DAY 3
01:50 PM – 03:00 PM
INVESTMENT ROUNDTABLES
- Session Title: Bankable Resilience Pipeline
Session Overview:
Connects governments and investors to structure resilience projects for financing.
DAY 3
03:00 PM – 03:15 PM
ESPRESSO BREAK
A short break for participants to refresh and network before the next session.
DAY 3
03:25 PM – 04:25 PM
VILLAGE SHOWCASE
- Session Title: Integrated Recovery Architecture
Session Overview:
Demonstrates how infrastructure, energy, finance, and governance systems integrate to accelerate recovery timelines.
DAY 3
04:40 PM – 05:40 PM
PANEL DISCUSSION
- Session Title: Accountability by Design: Metrics that Survive the Next Storm
Session Overview:
Focuses on strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems for resilience outcomes.
DAY 3
01:40 PM – 05:40 PM
SPECIAL SESSION
- Session Title: Unlocking Grant Finance for Disaster Resilience
Session Overview:
Provides practical guidance on accessing global funding for resilience and disaster risk reduction.
DAY 4 - Thu, Dec 10, 2026 – Full Day
Theme: Communities, Culture, and Social Infrastructure
DAY 4
09:00 AM – 09:40 AM
KEYNOTE
- Session Title: Community Self-Sufficiency as National Security
DAY 4
09:40 AM – 10:10 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE
Time for participants to connect and discuss insights from the keynote session.
DAY 4
10:20 AM – 11:20 AM
PANEL DISCUSSION
- Session Title: Cultural Heritage as a Recovery Engine
DAY 4
11:25 AM – 12:25 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION A
- Session Title: Education Recovery Playbooks
DAY 4
11:25 AM – 12:25 PM
CONCURRENT SESSION B
- Session Title: Disaster Health Beyond Clinics
DAY 4
12:25 PM – 01:25 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
Participants can connect over lunch and discuss insights from concurrent sessions.
DAY 4
01:40 PM – 03:00 PM
LEARNING LAB 1
- Session Title: Last-Mile Trust: Risk Communication that Changes Behaviour
DAY 4
01:40 PM – 03:00 PM
LEARNING LAB 2
- Session Title: Community-to-Capital: Packaging Local Solutions for Funding
DAY 4
03:00 PM – 03:15 PM
ESPRESSO BREAK
Short break for participants to refresh before the next session.
DAY 4
03:25 PM – 04:30 PM
STRATEGIC DIALOGUE
- Session Title: Regional Mutual Aid 2.0
DAY 4
07:00 PM – 09:00 PM
SHOWCASE
- Session Title: Film Festival
DAY 5 - Fri, Dec 11, 2026 – Full Day
Theme: Digital Twins, Political Decisions, and Measurable Commitments
DAY 5
09:00 AM – 09:50 AM
KEYNOTE
- Session Title: Digital Twins for Disaster Decision Advantage
DAY 5
09:50 AM – 10:20 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE
Time for participants to connect and discuss insights from the keynote session.
DAY 5
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
HIGH-LEVEL MINISTERIAL PANEL
- Session Title: Ministers’ Checkpoint: Delivery Contract to 2030
DAY 5
11:50 AM – 12:50 PM
PANEL (with Youth)
- Session Title: Intergenerational Command
DAY 5
12:50 PM – 01:50 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
Participants can connect over lunch and discuss insights from previous sessions.
DAY 5
02:00 PM – 04:00 PM
DRR PITCH COMPETITION FINALS
- Session Title: Caribbean DRR Innovators Pitch Competition
DAY 5
04:05 PM – 05:05 PM
PLENARY
- Session Title: CDM to 2030: Institutional Acceleration Framework
DAY 5
05:10 PM – 05:20 PM
CLOSING SESSION
- Session Title: Formal Adoption of the CDM14 Ten-Point Action Strategy
DAY 5
07:00 PM – 11:00 PM
GALA & AWARDS CEREMONY
Celebration and recognition of outstanding contributions and innovations during the event.
IMPORTANT NOTE
OUR Agenda is Evolving
The conference agenda is currently being finalized. Additional sessions, speakers, and timing updates will be announced as they are confirmed. Please check back regularly for the latest schedule.