THE BARBADOS-BASED Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is building capacity by forming new disaster management teams.
Speaking during the annual Press conference at the agency’s Lears, St Michael headquarters today, executive director Ronald Jackson said they were in the process of developing and training two new teams for deployment.
“We anticipated six but now have 30 people in training to make up our CARICOM damage assessment and coordination team and our CARICOM operational support team,” he said.
Jackson said these new teams would allow for more targeted responses and increased damage assessments. He also spoke of the CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit, made up of uniformed groups across the Caribbean.
Among the other aspects Jackson said CDEMA was looking at/working on were: the role of gender in response scenarios; the needs of children, pregnant women and the elderly during disasters and the rollout of the Comprehensive Disaster Management Audit Tool to measure the level of readiness of member states. (CA)
