Discussing Resilience in the Construction Sector Workshop
- March 25, 2020
- 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- BCCI’s McField Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Withfield Tower, 4792 Coney Drive, Belize City
- 223-5330
As a low-lying coastal nation, Belize is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and the resulting intensification of natural hazards, chiefly storms and flooding. Approximately 40% of the population lives along the coast, therefore, it is vital to strengthen crisis and disaster mitigation and resiliency planning for vulnerable coastal groups and prioritize actions at the community level. Belize is the 8th ranked country from 167 for climate risk and records show that the temperature is rising faster than the globally projected average. On average, Belize is hit every 3 years, with principal hazards being severe losses from wind damage and flooding due to storm surge and heavy rainfall.
The Pro-Adapt Belize Project: Increasing Climate Change Resilience and Related Business Opportunities aims to increase private-industry climate resilience in Belize at the enterprise level in the construction industry, while also helping local stakeholders to capitalize on the growing demand for products and services that help buyers to better manage exposure to climate phenomena including flooding, sea level rise, cyclonic winds and heat waves. With a geographic scope to include 3 coastal communities: Belize City, San Pedro Town and Caye Caulker, the project incorporates both supply and demand side perspectives in one operation. From the demand side, private industry climate resilience is a defensive strategy on the part of enterprises when aiming to enhance their business continuity, and to protect property, value chains and critical infrastructure. From the supply side, climate resilience is a business opportunity for local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the form of products and services needed to help customers to better manage their exposure to climate risks.
Stakeholders in the construction industry have the opportunity to draw from lessons learned, best practices and challenges in the field to support growth in the business and technical capacities among local small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and tradespeople in the construction and building sector so that they can install and provide climate-resilient products and services to interested households and businesses.
To this end, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry proposes to engage members of the Association of Professional Engineers (APEB), Association of Professional Architects of Belize (APAB) and members in the construction industry to a 1-day workshop to gather workable solutions to resilient construction drawing from the memberships’ lessons learned and best practices. Please find enclosed the invitation.
