Contact: NEMO
Tuesday,
March 18th, 2008 - For nearly ten years
the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) in St Lucia has
collaborated with many agencies in the area of Business Planning for Disasters
commonly referred to as Business Continuity Planning.
Through the United States Agency for International Development - Caribbean Open
Trade Support [USAID-COTS], NEMO will be hosting two- one day sessions on
Business Continuity Planning in St Lucia, March 18 - 19. At the end of the day
Agencies will be equipped with the necessary tools to complete a response plan.
The Caribbean Open Trade Support (COTS) program, funded by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) Barbados representative office, is
designed to facilitate the transition of member countries of the Organization of
Eastern Caribbean States to compete more successfully in the global economy.
To this end over a four year period, COTS is working with governments, the
private sector and non governmental organizations:
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To enhance private sector growth,
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Improve the business and
investment climate,
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Increase resilience to natural
disasters and
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Protect the sub-region's
biodiversity resources.
Under the Risk Reduction component,
COTS will join forces with government, civil society and the private sector to
develop and implement programs designed to improve the resilience of the economy
to the impacts of disasters. These activities are designed to improve the
ability of the countries to prepare for respond to and recover from disaster.
The Disaster Recovery training workshops are designed to share information and
generate a commitment to an improved level of Disaster/Emergency planning in
general and Recovery planning in particular.
The purpose of the workshop is to deliver appropriate Disaster Recovery training
including the preparation of preparedness and response plans to government
ministries and private sector entities in Antigua and Barbuda; Grenada; St.
Vincent and the Grenadines; St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Objectives of the workshop includes -
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Outline basic procedures for
preparing Emergency/Disaster Plans
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Promote a common understanding of
the concept, systems and procedures of Emergency /Disaster Recovery planning
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Provide templates and outlines of
Recovery plans
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Discuss and clarify the
inter-relationship between National Emergency /Disaster Planning
arrangements and non-government Emergency/Disaster Recovery arrangements
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Provide advice and feedback for
assessing existing Emergency/Disaster Recovery plans
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Promote a commitment to
inter-sectoral action to enhance Emergency/Disaster Recovery planning
The desired outcomes will be as
follows -
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A higher level of awareness of
the importance of Emergency/Disaster planning
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Confirmation of the intention to
improve contingency planning in all sectors for all major natural hazards
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Commitment to prepare Recovery
plans where such plans are absent or review and update such plans where
there exist
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Acceptance of the need to
integrate contingency planning into organizational development arrangements
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Identification of mechanisms for
future collaboration in Recovery Planning among all sectors
2007 was an active year for Saint
Lucia as it faced fires, Hurricane Dean and a 7.3 earthquake, all collaborating
to illustrate in a tangible manner the need for a Disaster Plan.