Migration, Environment, Disaster and Climate Change Data in the Eastern Caribbean:Commonwealth of Dominica Country Analysis

Amidst the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters on the country, the national Government recognizes the importance of effective governance concerning both climate change and mobility for sustainable socioeconomic development and climate change adaptation. To facilitate informed policies, planning, decision-making and strategies that enhance climate change adaptation and effective disaster response and recovery, the Government acknowledges the need for comprehensive, timely and reliable data on climate change, environment and human mobility. Despite this recognition, and despite existing data collection systems at the national level, comprehensive data on the climate and environmental change, disaster, and human mobility nexus remains limited. On the premise that good policy and planning needs timely and reliable data, and with the goal of enhancing policy and planning, this study assesses the national data systems on migration, environment, disaster and climate change in Dominica.At the national level, relative progress has been made in terms of policy governance and planning. Amongst the 12 policy frameworks and legislations related to migration, environment, climate change and disasters that were identified at the national level, only 5 acknowledged human mobility in the context of climate change and other environmental impacts, including disasters. To say that progress has been made, however, does not suggest that effective and long-term measures have been established to address the phenomenon. Recently, the National Resilience Development Strategy 2030 (NRDS) provided the framework for the formulation of the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020–2030 (CRRP), in working towards the achievement of a national vision of a climate-resilient Dominica by 2030. Alongside the 2015 National Resettlement Strategy, the CRRP outlines measures and initiatives to facilitate the relocation of populations in the context of disasters. Whilst these governance frameworks are explicit in outlining measures for relocating persons from vulnerable areas, and to ensure resilient housing, provisions on the development of data-sharing systems on the topic are generally non-existent in these national governance frameworks