The Caribbean and Central American regions have long faced hurricanes, but the frequency and intensity of these storms have increased in recent years, causing growing damage and losses. Notable examples include Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, Dorian in 2019, Beryl in 2024, and Melissa in 2025. These events highlight the urgent need for strengthened disaster preparedness and recovery mechanisms.
In response, UNDP has been working to enhance government capacity across Central America and the Caribbean for more effective management of recovery processes. Officials and authorities have received training in needs assessment and recovery planning, enabling them to respond better to disasters when they occur.
In 2024 and 2025, UNDP launched the Hurricane Preparedness Support Mechanism (HPSM), providing technical and financial assistance as well as training to prioritized country offices. This initiative strengthens both internal capacities—ensuring effective programmatic and operational functioning—and external capacities, allowing offices to offer rapid support to governments during recovery efforts.
The enhanced capacities proved crucial during Hurricane Beryl in Barbados and Jamaica, as well as in Cuba following Hurricanes Óscar and Rafael and concurrent earthquakes. UNDP teams supported comprehensive needs assessments, recovery planning, emergency shelters, and livelihood restoration.
UNDP prioritizes people-centered interventions, with a strong focus on gender. In Cuba, disaster risk management tools were reinforced to integrate preparedness and recovery, while in Jamaica, efforts supported the economic autonomy of women entrepreneurs, aiding both their recovery and that of their families. In 2025, this gender approach expanded further, linking vulnerability and risk information systems in Honduras and encouraging women-led companies in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic to adopt new technologies such as Blockchain.
At the end of October 2025, Hurricane Melissa impacted Jamaica and Cuba, causing widespread damage. UNDP offices in both countries activated business continuity plans, coordinating closely with government institutions to initiate recovery processes rapidly. In Jamaica, HPSM facilitated support for small entrepreneurs, particularly women, enabling immediate livelihood reactivation programs such as debris removal. In Cuba, the mechanism enabled access to a US$1 million Anticipatory Action Fund, providing essential supplies like roofing, tarpaulins, tools, electric generators, and mattresses for temporary housing.
These examples from Cuba and Jamaica demonstrate the critical importance of strengthening preparedness capacities in advance to ensure immediate and effective response. The 2025 Regional Report on Human Development in Latin America and the Caribbean emphasizes that people-centered risk reduction and recovery require resilient governance, agile and flexible instruments, strong institutions, and robust infrastructure and services.
