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Last Updated: Aug 12th, 2008 - 09:36:51 |
Bridgetown, Barbados August 11, 2008 (CDERA) - Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, the new United Nations Resident Coordinator (UN RC), recently paid a courtesy call to Jeremy Collymore, the Coordinator of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA). As UN RC, Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough will work out of the United Nations Development Programme’s Sub-regional Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. She will also act as a chairperson of the Eastern Caribbean Donor Group for Disaster Management (ECDG/DM), a group that coordinates the responses of international and regional donor organizations to disasters in the Eastern Caribbean. Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough and Mr. Collymore agreed to work together to intensify the already strong cooperation between their organizations.
“CDERA and the UNDP Sub-regional Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean have a close partnership that will only deepen as the Caribbean region moves more and more toward Comprehensive Disaster Management,” Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough said. Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) is a more proactive approach to dealing with disasters in which reducing the risks posed by disasters through preparation and preparedness is just as important as responding to disasters and picking up the pieces after they occur. Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough said this new approach was vital because “disasters often wipe out years of investments and important infrastructure, and severely set back the development of the region’s countries.” CDM implementation, though, requires a new culture of preparation and prevention, both among the Caribbean’s peoples and in the way the region goes about planning future development. The partnership between CDERA and the UNDP will play a big part in bringing this about.
With this in mind, Mr. Collymore thanked the new UN RC for the UNDP’s partnership with CDERA on several programmes, including an almost US$ 3 million project that strengthened the Caribbean’s Land-based Search and Rescue programme and improved the abilities of the region’s countries and communities to implement CDM and deal with disasters as they arise. He was also grateful for Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough’s pledge that the ECDG/DM will continue to support the CDERA-led Regional Response Mechanism, in which numerous specialized agencies in the region work as a team to respond to disasters.
Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough has more than 12 years’ experience in international development and disaster risk reduction and management through her work at major international organizations, including the UNDP and the Organization of American States. She also managed the UNDP’s reconstruction programme in Grenada following the destruction of that island’s infrastructure by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and played a major role in the UNDP-supported creation of a centre of excellence for Disaster Risk Reduction at the University of the West Indies. Mr. Collymore said that “the skills and experience Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough bring will greatly benefit the region’s drive to implement CDM.”
Mrs. Gyles-McDonnough praised CDERA’s past disaster management work, saying that “the agency’s work was key to the region and its peoples achieving their development goals.” She added that, as UN RC, she will ensure that the close partnership between the UNDP and CDERA will not just continue, but grow in the coming years.”
For further information please contact:
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency
Building #1, Manor Lodge
Lodge Hill, St. Michael, BARBADOS
Tel.no. (246)-425-0386;
Fax no. (246)-425-8854
Website: www.cdera.org;
E-mail: cdera@caribsurf.org
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