CABINET has noted the establishment of Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), which replaced Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) from September 1, 2009, making it the lead community institution responsible for disaster management.

This was reported yesterday by Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, at his weekly media briefing at Office of the President (OP), Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

The 18-year-old CDERA was the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) organ responsible for disaster response and management, a regional inter-governmental agency that was established by an agreement of the Heads of Government Conference in September 1991.

Disaster management has introduced the preparation, capacity building and related aspects of response and now captures management responsibilities, specifically for disaster loss reduction and mitigation polices and practices, Luncheon pointed out.

He said 18 members would now be the participating States under CDEMA which would continue to discharge the same responsibilities as CDERA “but with an additional management focus”.

In July 2008, the CARICOM Heads of Government signed an agreement establishing CDEMA and its birth will soon be followed by the development of a suite of policy and tools to mainstream disaster management in the community’s development strategy, Luncheon explained.

Among some of CDERA other responsibilities were securing, collating and channeling, to interested governmental and non-governmental organisations, comprehensive and reliable information on disasters affecting the region; mitigating or eliminating, as far as possible, the consequences of disasters affecting participating States; establishing and maintaining, on a sustainable basis, adequate disaster response capabilities among participating States and mobilising and coordinating disaster relief from governmental and non-governmental organisations for affected participating States.

The 18th Meeting of CDERA was convened in Guyana last June with an extensive agenda dealing with the advancement of comprehensive disaster management for the region and gathered together officials from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, St. Lucia, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda, among others.