CDERA GEARS UP TO BUILD EARTHQUAKE CAPACITY

Bridgetown, April 01, 2009 -- The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) is set to host another in a series of consultations with its regional stakeholders in Barbados on April 03. The one-day forum will review and finalise a public awareness and education thrust on earthquake readiness to be launched throughout CDERA participating territories later this year.

The campaign is but one element of a two-year project now underway, and supported by the Government of Austria, which addresses the region’s vulnerability to earthquakes and other hazards through a comprehensive approach to disaster management planning; and  incorporating earthquake preparedness at a national and community level. Through the project, at-risk CDERA Participating States will be supported in benchmarking their earthquake preparedness capacity, enhancing earthquake contingency planning and promoting earthquake awareness.

The Barbados forum will have widespread participation from a cross section of interests that includes the Seismic Research Centre based at St. Augustine Campus - Trinidad, The Earthquake Unit in Jamaica, The Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC), The International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS), various National Emergency Management personnel throughout the region, the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and CDERA.

The Earthquake Readiness Capacity Building Project adopts its approach from that of the broader Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy & Framework which links disaster risk management to development planning and decision-making. In that regard the public awareness campaign’s target audiences are diverse and segmented. CDERA says that media formats will be tailored to the needs of everyone from policymakers to the business sector, to institutions such as hospitals and seniors’ homes and to schools.  

Sixteen countries make up the CDERA Participating States. They are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent & the Grenadines, the Turks & Caicos Islands and Trinidad & Tobago

While CDERA is the management agency for the Earthquake Readiness Capacity Building Project, national development organisations (NDOs) NDOs in the project countries headed by the National Disaster Coordinators (NDCs) and their National Disaster Management Organizations (NDMOs, will collaborate on its implementation at the country level.