Caribbean Red Cross E-Newsletter

Disaster Risk Mgt.

No. 4

January - February 2007

Disaster Management Network

March 2007 meeting

The first DM Network meeting for 2007 was hosted by the Dominican Red Cross at its headquarters from March 8-9.

Following up on interests expressed by the Coordinator of PIRAC, Mr Gavin White to attend a DM Network meeting as an observer with a view to forging closer relations with other Caribbean Societies, an invitation was extended and accepted for the meeting.

PIRAC, the French regional intervention platform developed for the Francophone countries of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and French Guiana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pan American Disaster Response Unit (PADRU) whereby they will provide supplementary regional disaster assistance to other Caribbean Red Cross societies.

An overview of the just concluded DipECHO V project was presented and this was followed by an outline of the activities scheduled by PADRU for 2007.

These activities will include training of teams at various levels (FACT and RIT), final development of the Disaster Response and Contingency Planning Guidelines for the Caribbean, support for regional and international training and replenishment of key items in emergency containers during a disaster.

The network also revised several manuals which included the Prepared Family; Safe School and Community Preparedness; Education and Organisation as well as the National Intervention Team (NIT) manual developed at the Centre of Reference in El Salvador.

A review of the Terms of Reference necessitated some additions, the final version of which will be presented to the next meeting of the Caribbean Co-operation of Red Cross (CCORC) for approval and then circulated to all National Societies and Overseas Branches.

Pursuant to earlier discussions on the INTRAC report on networks in the region which was presented at the recently held 9th Biennial CCORC Meeting in the Dominican Republic, the network members further defined ways and means of improving the performance of the network.

Newsletter:

-	Network Focus
-	Other stories
-	Previous Newsletters

Related links:

-	Disaster Management Network
-	PADRU
-	CCORC
-	DIPECHO V Project

Members of the network in session

This included improved interaction with other networks, greater information sharing with the wider membership to enable improved “buy-in”, greater autonomy of network co-ordinators and more of an observer status by Federation personnel, allocation of funds to network to enable improved operational functions without cost to member societies. The first draft of the DM Network Plan of Action 2007-2008 was developed and will be ready by the Pre-Hurricane Meeting.

The third draft Plan of Action emanating from the Community Risk Reduction thematic working group meeting which was also held in the Dominican Republic was reviewed in detail and comments were noted by the network.

These comments will be sent to the thematic working group for their attention. The final version for this Plan of Action should reflect the views and “buy-in” of all National Societies and Overseas Branches and will be presented for adoption at the June 2007 XVII Inter-American Conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Owing to the disparity of resources between Latin America and the Caribbean, this adopted version will once again be reviewed by the Caribbean and those relevant actions will be identified for implementation by National Societies and Overseas Branches.