Captain Stephen Russell, Director of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) back row, right, pictured with participants at the Sixth Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) held in Bridgetown, Barbados, April 16-17, 2015. (Photo/CDEMA)
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Captain Stephen Russell, Director of the
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) recently attended the Sixth Meeting
of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency
Management Agency (CDEMA) in Bridgetown, Barbados.
During the meeting held April 16-17, 2015,
CDEMA provided an overview of the 2014-2024 Comprehensive Disaster Management
(CDM) Strategy, in which it continues to seek Participating States support to
buy into and integrate into key sectors of Government.
CDEMA presented its Corporate Plan for the
period 2014-2017, which outlines how the organization proposes to conduct its
business over the said period. It was noted
that CDEMA continues to face severe financial challenges, as less than 30
percent of the annual contributions from the 18 Participating States (The
Bahamas being a member) have been received.
However, CDEMA is still actively engaging
local, regional and international partners to assist with financing Disaster
Risk Reduction programmes within the various Participating States.
Meanwhile, CDEMA is aiming to develop a
Monitoring and Evaluation Policy. This seeks to provide the agency and
Participating States with a set of guidelines to further integrate the
Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy 2014-2024 into the various sectors,
country/agency work programmes, or donor funded programmes.
CDEMA is also seeking to establish a Regional
Training Centre (RTC): the purpose would be to serve as a clearinghouse for all
disaster training programmes being offered in the region, with a view of
ensuring standardization, verification, accreditation and certification.
At the conclusion of the CDEMA TAC meeting,
all Participating States were advised to continue improving their state of
preparedness for the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Action to be taken by NEMA coming out of the
regional meeting is to follow-up on the $665,000 grant being made available by
the Caribbean Development Bank that could be used for the Disaster Risk
Reduction programmes in The Bahamas.
Also:
· NEMA is to also follow up on the Country
Directed Fund of $70,000 being offered by the European Union for Disaster Risk
Reduction programme in The Bahamas;
· NEMA to continue working with the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology to finalize the School Disaster Plan
Implementation Process;
· NEMA will aim to continue to integrate the
CDEMA’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Strategy into key sectors in The
Bahamas
· NEMA will review its Information
Communication and Technology (ICT) with a view of improving in accordance with
CDEMA’s ICT Assessment of the agency
· NEMA will continue to incorporate into its
Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes strategies that mitigate negative effects of
Climate Change.
