Barbados must place communities at the centre of disaster planning as climate and systemic risks intensify, Minister of Home Affairs  Gregory Nicholls said on Wednesday, urging a decisive shift from top-down responses to grassroots action across the island and wider Caribbean.

Speaking at the opening of the Community Resilience Regional Conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre, Nicholls addressed regional delegates on the critical need to shift focus towards grassroots preparedness. He argued that local action is the most effective shield against increasingly volatile environmental and systemic shocks.

“Local preparedness and adaptive strategies reduce the fiscal, social, and environmental costs of disasters, ensuring continuity in economic activities and public services,” Nicholls said. He emphasised that empowering ordinary citizens is not merely a reactive measure, but “a strategic national development imperative” that strengthens economic stability and social cohesion.