Bridgetown, 杏吧性吧, February 9, 2011, (CDEMA) - The Management Committee of Council (MCC) of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) held its first meeting last Friday (February 4, 2011) in 杏吧性吧. 聽
In his opening remarks, the Honorable Charles Savarin, the Chair of the CDEMA Council and Minister for National Security, Immigration & Labour in Dominica, said that the Meeting was 鈥� a critical step in聽 giving life to the deepening of the CDEMA governance process, a key element of the policy context that guided the renaming and restructuring of the聽 Agency.鈥� 聽
Advancing the organizational restructuring of the CDEMA Coordinating Unit, and a framework for resource mobilization were two of the key matters addressed by the MCC.聽聽 The recommendations on the restructuring proposals together with a schedule outlining a process for implementation will be forwarded for consideration at the 2nd Meeting of the CDEMA Council to be convened in June this year. 聽
The 2010 Emergency Events affecting Participating States were also reviewed by the Committee.聽 Discussions focused on the lessons related to operations and national level readiness with a view to enhancing preparedness. Steps towards defining an approach to minimize loss and suffering in the CDEMA communities were also considered. The Committee endorsed CDEMA CU鈥檚 programme commemorating 20 years (1991 鈥� 2011) of institutionalization of disaster management.聽聽聽 聽
Technical and financial capacity gaps in Disaster Risk Reduction in the region were also discussed at the inaugural meeting resulting in the sanctioning of a two pronged platform for augmenting resource mobilization.
The MCC expressed strong appreciation for the CDM programme and recognized the support of the development partners that facilitated CDEMA CU鈥檚 organizational review. Special mention was made of the European Commission that financed the study and UKaid from the Department for International Development and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for sponsorship of related inputs.聽聽 聽
Meeting attendees were the Honorable Minister Charles A Savarin, Ambassador Joshua Sears of the Bahamas and Chairman of the CDEMA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC);聽聽 Mrs. Colette Roberts-Risden , Acting Chief Technical Director in the Office of the Prime Minister with oversight responsibility for Planning and Development聽 and representative of the Jamaica聽 Sub-Regional Focal Point (SRFP);聽 Ms. Desdra Bascombe, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago, representative of the聽 T&T SRFP;聽 Mr. Philmore Mullin representative of the Antigua & Barbuda SRFP; Mr Jeremy Collymore , Executive Director of the CDEMA Coordinating Unit (CU) and other senior management staff of the CU.
The MCC is a sub-committee of the CDEMA Council charged with making recommendations to Council to enhance the management and functioning of the CDEMA, policy identification and organization performance review.