The report - The State of the Jamaican Climate 2012 - suggests that Jamaica’s climate is changing and that the country will experience significant climatic changes that could have a negative impact on various sectors.  Data collected for the island for 1992 to 2010 show a warming trend for the country of about 0.1 degrees Celsius per decade. There is greater warming projected across the central and eastern interior of the island.  Projections for future rainfall for the country indicate that the island will transition to a much drier state by the end of the century.  The country will also become more vulnerable to more intense storms, more extreme periods of rainfall and periods of drought. We have thus sought to put policies and mechanisms in place for such an eventuality. 

The Government of Jamaica, in consultation with key stakeholders, has formulated the Climate Change Policy Framework for Jamaica. The policy framework creates mechanisms to facilitate the development, coordination and implementation of policies, sectoral plans, programmes, strategies and legislation to address the impact of climate change. The Government of Jamaica has also created a Draft National Policy and Plan of Action on International Migration and Development. Both the Climate Change Policy Framework for Jamaica and the Draft National Policy and Plan of Action on International Migration and Development are intended to support Jamaica’s advancement towards achieving developed country status by 2030 as is articulated in the country’s first long-term national development plan – the goals of the Vision 2030 Jamaica.  The Government of Jamaica has also adopted the Disaster Risk Management Act, 2015 which addresses disaster risk management nationally and locally.

The Draft National Policy and Plan of Action on International Migration and Development seeks to integrate the issue of climate change or protection issues for people displaced in the context of climate change. It recognizes that the provision of mechanisms to safeguard migrants’ rights must be based on humanitarian principles and human rights laws. Consequently, dialogue has commenced with regard to Jamaica’s adoption of a Migration Crisis Operational Framework (MCOF), which is based on the understanding that States bear the primary responsibility to protect and assist crisis-affected persons residing on their territory in a manner consistent with international humanitarian and human rights law.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is the Government agency responsible for providing disaster management functions in Jamaica. Disaster Management encompasses all aspects of planning for and responding to disasters, including the before, during, and after disaster activities. It refers to both the risk and consequences of a disaster. ODPEM works with international organizations, all relevant MDAs and civil society bodies across Jamaica to adequately and proactively coordinate and implement Jamaica’s Disaster Management Framework using a tiered approach: national, parish and community levels.  As such, all persons domiciled in Jamaica during a crisis or disaster is offered support and concrete services to protect and safeguard their well–being. Similarly, the MCOF, as an international framework, seeks to improve and systematize IOM’s response to migration crises by bringing together its different sectors of assistance within a pragmatic and evolving approach, while upholding human rights and humanitarian principles and promoting longer-term development goals.

Given the identified vulnerabilities of the Latin America and Caribbean Region, regional authorities met in Costa Rica from 17-18 February 2016, under the auspices of the Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative to discuss and draw on each other’s experiences and and examine the various types of responsibility afforded to migrants in countries of destination and transit caught in crisis. This regional consultation workshop focused on the three phases of migration due to crisis, namely; the pre-crisis, emergency and post-crisis phases.