The Honorable Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Distinguished Representatives of Government, Invited Guests, Conference Delegates, Members of the Media, and Other Partnersin Disaster Management:
This 4th CDM Conference is taking place at a critical anniversary juncture in the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) historical landscape in the Caribbean. These include the initiating, thirty years ago, of the dialoguing on actioning a regional isaster preparedness and prevention programme which gave birth to the infamous Pan Caribbean Disaster Preparedness revention Project (PCDPPP); the birthing of ODIPERC, now ODPEM also thirty years ago; the pioneering international conference on disaster mitigation twenty five years ago in Ocho Rios; and theagreement of the Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM twenty years ago in Grande Anse, Grenada to establish a regional inter-governmental framework for coordinating its policies and programmes in DRR, CDERA now CDEMA.