Kingston, Jamaica, December 6th, 2013 (CDEMA, ODPEM) – The 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) came to a close today Friday, December 6, 2013 with the presentation of the conference communique, a report on the key outcomes and the way forward associated with the CDM Strategy Implementation Plan 2014-2024.
The communique captioned “Promoting Resilient Development” acknowledged the critical disaster management needs and issues faced by CARICOM countries and the Caribbean as a region. According to the Executive Director of CDEMA, Mr Ronald Jackson, “the purpose of the communique is to call on all actors, primarily policy and political leaders to act on the major agreements made at the conference and also to further discussions commenced toward enabling actions. I feel confident in saying that this week has caused us all to have a renewed sense of resolve and commitment to address these issues to ensure the strengthening of the resilience of our states”.
He highlighted some of the areas that require commitment towards strengthening the CDM agenda. These include urging national governments to prioritize disaster risk management, encourage mainstreaming of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation into development planning processes, encourage governments to advance robust regulatory frameworks to guide the financial sector, encourage public-private sector partnership investment and harness improved science, technology and extension services for prevention and mitigation of disasters among others.
Deputy Prime Minister of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique and Minister of Legal Affairs, Labour, Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs & Local Government, the Hon, Elvin Nimrod, in bringing closing remarks, pledged to engage his cabinet in talks to address some of the recommendations and outcomes that arose from the meeting. “I will use whatever influence that I have to ensure that the Government of Grenada embraces these recommendations and sees it as an opportunity for resilience. We talk about disaster management and agree that it is everybody’s business and so we talk about the role of national government and the role of private sector partnerships including the financial institutions. The cost will be significantly greater for us if we were to attempt to mitigate against hazards on our own and so this is very important,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.
In reflecting on the objectives of the conference which was held under theme “CDM for Resilient Development: A Good Investment”, Ms Andria Grovsvenor, Alliance and Cooperation Service Manager, CDEMA, reported on the significant achievements of the conference. These included the review and ratification of the implementation plan to guide the roll out of the 2014-2024 CDM Strategy which was launched on Tuesday December 03, 2013 and the launch of the CDM Youth Ambassador Programme.
Mr Ronald Jackson expressed his appreciation to stakeholder and partner agencies and the Government of Jamaica for the continued support to the successfully staging of the CDM conference in Jamaica.
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