(Port of Spain, November 21st – 22nd 2011) After signing a MOU in March 2011, the Association of Caribbean States and the Finnish Meteorological Institute have been jointly implementing the project, Strengthening of Hydro-Meteorological Operations and Services in the Caribbean SIDS (SHOCS) in order to improve and strengthen Early Warning Systems to prevent hurricane related risks in the region.

In May 2011, this joint team has held the 1st Workshop on the implementation of a quality management system for Aeronautical Meteorological Services. This event highlighted the needs and gaps with regards to Hydro Meteorological Early Warning Systems.In this context, the ACS and the Finnish Meteorological Institute held on November 21st and 22nd a capacity assessment meeting to formulate recommendations for the improvement of Early Warning Systems

This meeting was attended by the Secretary General of the ACS, Luis Fernando Andrade Falla, Eduardo Gonzalez Angulo, Director of the Directorate of Disaster Risk Reduction of the ACS; Tyrone Sutherland, Coordinating Director of Caribbean Meteorological Organisation; John Peters of Grenada Meteorological Service; Benedict Peters of National Disaster Management Agency, Grenada; Shelly Bradshet, Geographical Investigator Specialist of the Office of Disaster Preparedness & Emergency Management (ODPEM); Jennifer Gonzalez of the Red Cross, Trinidad & Tobago; Emmanual Moolchan and Marlon Noel of the Trinidad & Tobago Meteorological Service and Glendell de Souza from the World Meteorological Organisation.

The attendees expressed their satisfaction of the work already done on this project by the Secretary General and the Directorate of Disaster Risk Reduction of the ACS and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.