Ministerial Council To Mull Disaster Management Policy

Details

Health News

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John’s - Reports and policy recommendations on matters directly impacting Antigua & Barbuda and other participatory states will be among the issues to be discussed when the 3rd Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), gets under way in Jamaica on Thursday.
 

Minister of Health, Social Transformation, Consumer Affairs and Local Government, Willmoth Daniel will be representing the twin–island state at the regional meeting. He is expected to table the country’s status report during that session.
 
Daniel, who is the minister with responsibility for disaster management, indicated that the council will receive reports and policy recommendations on matters that affect participating States, chief of which is the CDEMA programming support on disaster risk reduction management to each country and the National Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Policy and Framework.
 
Particularly, for Antigua & Barbuda, Minister Daniel said,  “The twin island state has just completed as part of its comprehensive disaster management strategy, a pilot project in St. Mary’s South which deals specifically with community profile and multi-hazard vulnerability intervention options to be included in the government development programme. This should result in a significant reduction in the level of vulnerability to the population in this community.”
 
This, he said will be replicated in all seventeen (17) districts over the next few years.
 
The policy will serve as a blueprint for accelerating the CDM Policy and Framework within each CDEMA Participating State and endorsement for its adaptation guide will be sought during the meeting.
 
“Antigua & Barbuda disaster management work programme 2013-2015 will reflect these considerations in a phased prioritised process,” Minister Daniel said, adding that the private sector will be encouraged to follow the government’s lead agency, the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) in an improved partnership.
 

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“This will require more aggressive collaboration between the private sector, civil society, and the government of Antigua & Barbuda, who supports the CDEMA transformation even though financially, it is very painful,” he stated.
 
Minister Daniel further explained that, over the years Antigua & Barbuda has invested in specialised emergency telecommunications, mass casualty management, and in recent times built a light level search and rescue training facility.
 
To this end, initial discussions are ongoing with USAID Agency for International Development (USAID) to train our sub-regional focal point partners as a team at the Antigua Training Facility.


The Council, which meets annually to review the work of the agency and make major policy decisions, is the policy making body of CDEMA and will also discuss the review of emergency events that affected CDEMA Participating States in 2011 and strategic preparations for the hurricane season.
 
Additionally, a key item on the agenda at each meeting is the report from the Management Committee of Council on financial and administrative matters.
 
The opening ceremony of the Council Meeting will be held on the evening of June 28, at 7 pm.

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