The Chief of Operations of the Main National State of Civil Defense, William Cedeño Centeno signed this Friday, a Collaboration Agreement with the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) for the continuity of Cuba’s work on subjects related to disaster risk management and the strengthening of Early Warning Systems in the region. In the Agreement, Cuba is committed to sharing knowledge, expertise and experiences in Disaster Risk Management with a focus on prevention and even to perform diagnoses on the Hydrometeorological Early Warning Systems (SAT in Spanish, EWS in English), technology transfers, technical training of national teams and the transfer of the Box of EWS Tools from Cuba, among other actions of cooperation. The signing of said Agreement took place in Saint Lucia, during the high level panel event “Multi-threat Early Warning Systems: Accomplishments and strategic vision for the future”, organized by CDEMA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); as a result of a regional cooperation project with funds from the European Union, in which the International Red Cross also participated and seven Caribbean nations are benefiting: The Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Cuba, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.
Also present at the event, also recognized as a Handing over were the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Honorable Allen Chastanet, the Executive Director of CDEMA, Ronald Jackson, among other officials from National Systems Organizations and Regional Risk Management Agencies. Present at the event from Cuba were the Ambassador of Cuba in Saint Lucia, Alejandro Simancas, President of the Environment Agency of Cuba, Maritza García García, the Head of the AMA Risk Evaluation Group, Rudy Montero and the Management Assistant in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction UNDP Cuba, Dayana Kindelán, Besides the Handing over, the meeting in Saint Lucia has the goal of holding an initial planning meeting for the second phase of the regional project, with the participation of representatives from the national systems of the seven beneficiary countries and coordinators on a national and regional level from the agencies implementing the collaboration initiative, which had important, vital results in their first phase for the strengthening of Caribbean Early Warning Systems (EWS).
