Conclusions and recommendations: meeting on evaluation of preparedness and response to hurricanes Georges and Mitch, 16-19 February 1999, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

More than 400 professionals from 48 countries attended this meeting to identify lessons learned with regard to the preparedness for and response to two of the most devastating hurricanes of the last decades: Georges and Mitch. The recommendations in this document were drafted in 20 working group sessions that were coordinated by one or several of the co-sponsoring international organizations: the Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, the United Nations Development Program, the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs and the Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. In presenting these recommendations, the document maintains the original format of the meeting so that readers can easily identify specific areas of interest. At the end of the document is a summary of the evaluation of the meeting made by the participants.