The Special Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction meets twice per year and involves co-operation among the different regional bodies and strategies, for the purpose of establishing a response to natural occurrences.
Also, its primary objective is the institutional strengthening of regional bodies, providing the tools necessary to strengthen national organisations in the areas of prevention and mitigation with respect to emergencies.
The 18th Meeting of the Special Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on September 9-10, 2010 and was attended by 15 Member States, 1 Associate Member, 3 Observer Countries and 8 international and regional organisations.
The new Director of Transport and Disaster Risk Reduction of the ACS, Mr. Eduardo José González Angulo, was introduced on that occasion. Said meeting was also marked by the presence of several Conference Bodies, which was concretised by more consolidated work.
Discussion of a “Letter of Intent” between the ACS and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Approval was also given for a new memorandum with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
It was acknowledged, the importance of adding to the DRR work programme, a project on disaster prevention in Caribbean states that is related to meteorological forecasting in conjunction with the World Meteorological Organisation.
Due to the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, the National Emergency Commission of the Dominican Republic presented the ACS with the important project entitled “Establishment of the Regional Centre for Risk Management Training”
Mr. Jeremy Collymore, Executive Director of CDEMA, voiced his support for the Director the DTDRR of the ACS and expressed enthusiasm over the fact that CDEMA and the ACS will be working very closely together.
CEPREDENAC and the Directorate for Disaster Risk Reduction agreed on the goal to go beyond the political differences existing in the region, so as to raise efficiency in reducing the disasters that affect its economies on an annual basis.
Therefore, the meetings of the Special Committee as well as those of the Technical Groups on Disaster Risk Reduction function as a forum, thus it is important to invite regional and international delegations and institutions to share their countries’ experience in establishing and/or strengthening their respective national platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Since its inception, the ACS identified the need to increase its Members’ capacity to tackle the devastating effects of natural disasters and decided to create a co-operation system in this area. The adverse effects of disasters, if not controlled, will continue to have grave consequences for the sustainable development of the Greater Caribbean and therefore require the urgent establishment of a framework that would promote co-operation in disaster risk reduction and which would also include prevention and an improved system for disaster management.
It is specifically here that there has been proof of the real value of the functional co-operation provided by the ACS, by making available a space in which the different capabilities of Members can be pooled as a force that is stronger than the sum of its parts.
It can be deduced from the foregoing that the efforts of the Secretariat through the DDRR should begin by helping Members to establish and implement the concept that was unanimously approved in the HFA, in the sense that natural disaster reduction and preparedness/mitigation is mainly a problem of governance with a direct impact on sustainable development.
