Rayner, JeremyCoates, Kenneth2024-07-2220242024-062024-05-02June 2024https://hdl.handle.net/10388/15856As climate change accelerates and the Anthropocene is increasingly acknowledged, disaster risk reduction has become a paramount governance issue, particularly in small island states, which bear the brunt of CC impacts as well as the still-reverberating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This doctoral research analyzes disaster risk reduction in small island Caribbean jurisdictions, where 84% of the population live near the coast and whose economies are highly affected by externalities. While scientists have framed CC, interdisciplinary public policy scholars search for strategic policy designs to devise and implement a policy mix for sustainable development. This dissertation poses the question: How can better policy design enhance disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean? To examine this question, qualitative research methods are used to analyze regional policy mixes and governance. A review of legislation and related climate change initiatives reveals that information instruments are the most often used, that regulatory instruments result in higher policy implementation and outputs, and that financial instruments provide a safety net in Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Semi-structured open-ended interviews reveal that the Cayman Islands uses all three governance modes: hierarchical, market, and network. Hierarchical, with a relatively small governance structure, enables the market and network governance modes to flourish, with insurance as the primary market governance mode and the business and non-profit organization sector as the main stakeholders in the network governance mode. A further assessment reveals the extent to which the Cayman Islands’ government drew on existing disaster risk reduction strategies and lessons learned from its responses to natural disasters and applied them during the critical first stages of COVID-19. Complemented by an exploratory literature review of peer-reviewed journals, findings show a clear link between familiar and emerging hazards. The results demonstrate that no single optimal policy mix applies to the unique context found in each small island jurisdiction. However, there are lessons suggested by this study that can result in improved policy outputs: i) using a full range of policy instruments in the policy mixes; ii) using the dominating hierarchical governance mode to enable market and network governance modes to flourish as a viable solution to constrained resources; and iii) examining lessons learned from familiar hazards and applying them in the early stage to emerging hazards and consolidating lessons learned to enable the preparation for unknown hazards; and iv) using a whole-of-government approach to hazards and disasters vis-à-vis the National Emergency Operations Centreapplication/pdfendisaster risk reductionpublic policyCaribbeanThesis2024-07-22