The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) made this assessment at the request of the Government of Jamaica in close cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and with the assistance of the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Several agencies of the United Nations contributed information for this assessment, namely FAO and PAHO. This report was provided to the Ministry of Finance of Jamaica for its reconstruction planning strategy and to contribute to identifying the financial needs and implication for the country.

The Jamaica situation after hurricane Ivan points to an event that while being geographically limited in scope affected in different ways to whole of the country. The event’s direct damage and indirect losses amount to 8% of the country’s current GDP in 2003 (almost 36,000 million Jamaican dollars or 580 million of US dollars).