Training on disaster risk management with a focus on social protection in Honduras

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) and the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) are offering in Honduras a training programme on disaster risk management with a focus on social protection, aimed at promoting disaster risk management skills, based on multi-sectoral coordination efforts, in order to enhance the protection and recovery of affected people.

For two days, specialists from the Permanent Contingencies Commission (COPECO), the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) and the Honduran Secretariat of Social Development (SEDESOL), together with representatives of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), will review best practices of risk management models in Latin America and the Caribbean, to propose joint lines of work and integration processes in risk approaches that facilitate the orientation of disaster risk reduction policies towards the implementation of economic and social recovery measures aimed at protecting the income of individuals and households.

The Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Clarems Endara, stressed that although threats caused by natural phenomena are inevitable, their effects can be mitigated through disaster risk management if we have an adequate approach to the vulnerabilities of the sectors most prone to social risks. “It is my hope that this training will enable them to generate public policies not only to mitigate risks and build resilience, but also to reduce social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities that will allow us to increase the resilience and general welfare of the population with a focus on social protection against catastrophic events, including unforeseen ones, such as COVID-19,” he said.

The first day of the training on disaster risk management, held at the headquarters of the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Risk Management and National Contingencies (COPECO) in Tegucigalpa, was also attended by Ambassador Cindy Rodríguez, Undersecretary for International Cooperation and Promotion; Ramón Soto Bonilla, Minister of the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Risk Management and Contingencies; and Omar Bello, representative of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).