A New Vision for Disaster Management
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A New Vision for Disaster Management |
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Contact: Shannon Lebourne
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 – The government of Saint Lucia is promoting a new vision for disaster Management in Saint Lucia based on best practices and lessons learnt from Hurricane Tomas.
In partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) various government agencies joined forces on Monday July 25th for the launch of a consultation on a new framework for future decision making post a national disaster.
Director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) Dawn French says the consultation was designed to ensure that Saint Lucia`s response to any disaster is more effective. “Essentially we need to review what we have done and see where our strengths are and building on it, we need to see what our weaknesses are and improve on them so that is essentially the lesson for all of us attending the two day consultation.”
The July 25th and 26th consultation provided local Emergency Response Agencies including the Ministry of Health along with Community Response teams like the Red Cross, members of the Essential Services and the Private Sector the platform to report on challenges, constraints and lessons learnt from Hurricane Tomas.
Representative of USAID/OFDA Mr John Kimbrough told the gathering that ever disaster presents new lessons which can enhance the response to future events. “No two events or no two disasters are ever the same, no two events require the same response, each evens seems to produce unique challenges and from each event we learn how to better coordinate and work with each other in order to ensure that the beneficiaries - those people affected by the disaster receive timely and appropriate assistance, the bottom line is the beneficiaries” added Mr John Kimbrough.
The two day USAID funded consultation was held under the theme “Towards a New Vision for Disaster Management in Saint Lucia – A Framework for future decision Making based on Best Practices and Lessons learned from Hurricane Tomas post disaster early recovery.”
The outcome and deliberations from the consultation are expected to influence future disaster response and recovery efforts. |
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