Workshop discusses coastal community resilience

Workshop discusses coastal community resilience - 29.02.2008 ( from Seychelles Nation)

Over 40 delegates belonging to the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWS)) from the region and beyond are meeting over three days in the Seychelles to exchange knowledge and analyse tools and practices for enhanced coastal community resilience.

They are carrying out the exercise through a three-day workshop being held at the Maison de Football, Roche Caiman.
The workshop is being hosted by the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM), with the support of the United Nations (UN) International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

It is being organized under the theme ‘Approaches to Coastal Community Resilience’, and its main highlight was the showcase of Silhouette island as a small and resilient community, through a 15-minute documentary that was shown to participants after the workshop’s official opening yesterday.

The opening, as well as the screening of the documentary, took place in the presence of the special advisor in the Office of the President, Dr Rolph Payet; the Head of the Secretariat of ICG, Tony Elliot; and DRDM’s director general, Michel Vielle, who also happens to be the Chairman for Group 6 – Mitigation, Preparedness and Response of the ICG/IOTWS.

Participants of the workshop come from countries around the Indian Ocean region, notably Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles.

Local participants attending the workshop are said to be partners to DRDM in the collective effort to manage and limit the outcome of disasters and such in the event they should occur on our territory.