Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency’s (CDEMA), Ronald Jackson.
Jackson: Disaster relief teams must not be undervalued
Sat, 08/20/2016 - 12:00am
The significance of the Regional Response Mechanism (RRM) and the CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit (CDRU) should not be understated.
This was expressed by the Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency’s (CDEMA), Ronald Jackson, as he addressed the recent closing ceremony of the annual training workshop of the CDRU, which was held at CDEMA’s headquarters, Resilience Way, Lower Estate, St. Michael.
This year, 32 participants from the disciplined forces, including police, military and fire services, successfully completed four days of training in preparation for their role in providing relief and humanitarian assistance in the event of a disaster.The training was facilitated by CDEMA in collaboration with the Regional Security System Headquarters (RSS HQ) with funding from the United States Government through the US Southern Command.
The CDRU is one of the specialised teams trained by CDEMA each year as part of the Regional Response Mechanism, coordinated by CDEMA to provide humanitarian and technical support in a timely manner if requested by any of the CDEMA’s 18 Participating States.
The System is extremely dependent on the readiness and willingness of the governments of Participating States, regional institutions, key development partners, agencies of the United Nations and humanitarian partners to work
together in offering immediate assistance when the call comes from the CDEMA Coordinating Unit.
“I am very proud of what we have accomplished together, not just this training but over the past 25 years of CDERA’s/CDEMA’s existence. Whilst many were talking about civil/military cooperation and coordination, the CARICOM Community under the leadership of CDEMA and in partnership with the RSS and the Region’s Military, Security and Fire Chiefs were actually actively doing it,” Jackson said.
From 1992 -2015 the Regional Response Mechanism has been in action 17 times and in several instances to multiple islands at the same time. The response has been to disasters resulting from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and weather related events.
“There is real capacity in the region to assist our Participating States,” he added. (TL)