MHES Hosts Inter-Agency Design Workshop for Resilience Index
On Wednesday 11 February, the Ministry for Health, Environment and Sustainability (MHES) hosted an inter-agency design workshop bringing together representatives from over 20 government ministries, departments and non-government stakeholders to participate in the co-creation of a Resilience tool for the Cayman Islands.
The interactive workshop, held at the Intergenerational Hub, was facilitated by consultants from Integrated Risk Management Associates LLC (IRMA), who travelled to the Cayman Islands to deliver the all-day session.
The National Resilience project, which officially kicked-off in July 2025, is being funded by the European Union (EU) through the Green Overseas (GO) Programme and implemented by MHES in partnership with Expertise France IRMA.
The project to develop an online platform to define, measure and monitor climate resilience is now more than halfway through its scheduled timeline. It originates from a key strategic action in the Cayman Islands Climate Change Policy 2024-2050, and is being created to enhance resilience across the policy’s six strategic focus areas:
- Robust economy;
- Liveable built environment;
- Healthy and resilient communities;
- Resilient infrastructure networks;
- Harmony with nature, and
- Integration and coordination
The index will support stronger planning and help safeguard communities, infrastructure and the economy from growing climate risks.
Hon. Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, Minister for Health, Environment and Sustainability, said: “The design workshop brought collective experiences into the room and asked thoughtful and often challenging questions about how we as a government, and our external partners, can work together to develop a tool that will empower us to do something that we’ve never done before: Measure how our current and future policies and projects impact the climate resilience of the Cayman Islands.
“Climate impacts every aspect of society, and the tool that we are developing will be focusing a lot more than measuring how “green” we are as a country. Rather, this is about enhancing our resilience and future-proofing across all sectors of society and our economy to ensure our continued prosperity.”
The platform is being designed and shaped by the people and entities in the Cayman Islands that understand our systems best and will use the tool to inform decisions and measure progress across sectors, and over time. One of the aims of the data platform is to ensure that it reflects realities, challenges and risks of our three islands. Once developed, the tool will inform better planning, smarter investment and cohesive decision-making across government and with private sector stakeholders.
During the session, the attendees received an update from IRMA on the work delivered so far including a presentation on the findings of their benchmark study and results of their stakeholder surveys. Attendees had the opportunity to also share any concerns, risks and critiques, and debate what could or should be measured by such a tool and how the platform would be practically maintained.
Lisa Hurlston-McKenzie, Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Resiliency, said: “The design workshop is a critical milestone in this project’s timeline, and is the first time that our stakeholders have had the opportunity to come together in one space, voice their ideas, concerns and highlight synergies, and come up with potential solutions to make this tool fit for our collective purposes. This process has built significant momentum and support for the project, and I am excited to continue working towards our next steps.”
Attendees at the workshop also brainstormed to come up with a new name for the tool. The name “Cayman Islands Resilience Index” (CIRI), was voted for by the participants, and will become the new official name for the tool.
Since the kick-off, the team from IRMA and the Ministry project team have completed several deliverables including an inception report outlining the objectives, processes and milestones of the project; a benchmark study analysing similar tools in use around the world that provides strategic insights that could inform how the Cayman Islands tool is developed and tailored to best meet the nation’s needs; and conducted a survey and focus group discussions with government and non-government entities to understand stakeholder expectations of the project and garner content for the tool.
Marilise Turnbull, Founding Partner of IRMA and Project Lead, said: “It is an honour and pleasure to work with the Cayman Islands Government to develop this platform and help achieve their policy goals. We are very pleased with the results of the workshop and appreciate all the civil servants and non-government representatives who committed their time and efforts to participate in this collaborative design process. Our next steps will be to collate the insights and begin the system design and prototype creation of the Cayman Islands Resilience Index.”
MHES Chief Officer, Tamara Ebanks, said: “The Ministry team and the project team from IRMA have been doing excellent work to engage the wider civil service, Ministers and key non-government entities in this initiative. The Ministry is also committed to keeping the public informed of the progress of this truly innovative project throughout its development and beyond.”
