CDEMA to focus on region’s communities

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - For disaster management personnel, the challenge of preparing Caribbean communities is a great one. That is according to the outgoing Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Jeremy Collymore. His comments came during an interview with the media yesterday afternoon following a media conference and luncheon in his honour at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. “If you look at communities, I think in Barbados there are 900… if you multiply that in many other countries, it is a big challenge and it needs a big plan of consistent intervention. Part of the comprehensive disaster management strategy that is being re-articulated and in even our strategic plan, there is recognition that there needs to be higher investment in understanding and supporting capacity at the community level for survival. That is being articulated with an understanding that at CDEMA, that is not what we will be doing, but we will be supporting that exercise with civil society and at the national level,” he said.