Thursday, December 2 – A contingent comprising five persons from the Virgin Islands will represent the Territory at the 5th Annual Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) in Jamaica from December 6 – 10.
The group will comprise Deputy Director Mr. Zebalon McLean, Emergency Communications Manager, Mr. Dale Lake, Information and Education Manager, Mr. Linton Leonard of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM), Physical Planner II, Town and Country Planning Department, Ms. Avelinda Freeman and Owner, S&D Security Mr. St. Clair Springette.,.
The week-long conference will be held at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa in Montego Bay under the theme “CDM: Strengthening Partnership for Resilience” and will feature three professional development sessions targeting different sectors. Additionally, one of the sessions will expound on Business Continuity Management for key persons in the business community.
This conference, the Caribbean region’s annual signature disaster management forum, has provided the platform for reflection and dialogue on initiatives and issues to advance the CDM Agenda and to measure progress in the region within the context of the Enhanced CDM Strategy and Programming Framework 2007-2012. CDM is the regional contribution to the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, a blue print for global action in disaster risk reduction.
Based on the outlined objectives, the CDM Conference serves as a regional event of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) global platform and is structured to promote good practice, the sharing of ongoing research, charting the way forward for the advancement of CDM in the Caribbean and providing a unique opportunity for facilitating networking among disaster management practitioners, donors, non-governmental organisations, public and private sector organisations, researchers, civil society and other CDM Stakeholders.
Key conference sessions will include professional development and case study sessions, showcasing of comprehensive disaster management programmes to advance CDM, disaster management exposition, a film festival and a youth session.
Delegates’ participation is being financed by the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
