A 5-member team is representing Grenada at the eleventh Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) annual Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) conference in Sint Maarten.
The conference is held under the theme, “The Road to Resilience Checkpoint 2019 – Safeguarding Our Communities, Livelihoods and Economies.”
The team consists of Acting Disaster Management Coordinator Supt. Sylvan Mc Intyre; Youth Representative Donte Mc Gillivary from Carriacou; Jamilla Lewis-Samuel, Communication Supervisor, NAWASA and two members from the Youth Emergency Action Committee (YEAC).
McIntyre said the conference provides an opportunity for disaster managers across the CDEMA framework to reflect and review the just-concluded hurricane season, analysing lessons learnt, best practices and identifying strengths and weaknesses.
“It is also a platform for showcasing disaster risk reduction initiatives, new equipment, new ideas and new spectrum for ensuring that we prepare for disaster and the events in the Caribbean that can affect us negatively,” Mc Intyre said.
One of the highlights of the conference is youth involvement. The youth representatives from the region will be engaged in debates, tours, school visits explaining to students and their peer’s aspects of Comprehensive Disaster Management.
The youth representatives are expected to be ambassadors in sharing the message of comprehensive disaster management in their respective countries.
The conference which has attracted over 400 representatives from across the region will conclude on Friday.
About the CDM Conference
The CDM Conference is the Caribbean region’s premier event on Disaster Risk Management and is hosted in collaboration with the Government of Sint Maarten. Over the years, the CDM Conference has showcased best practices emerging from CDEMA’s 18 participating states.
The event has also provided a space for the convening of professional development sessions for DRM Practitioners, Planners, Environmental Scientists, among others, within the CDEMA Participating States as well as stakeholders beyond our region. It has emerged as a platform for the engagement of niche groups/sectors in the DRM dialogue, physical planners, meteorologists, climate change stakeholders, researchers, educators and public and private financial experts; facilitated inter-stakeholder exchanges/networking and new policy ideas. As such, the CDM conference is viewed as an important mechanism for stakeholder engagement and intersectoral exchanges
NaDMA, the official source for all disaster-related information in Grenada.
