St. Maarten Government to co-host Disaster Conference December 2-6

Philipsburg — The Government of St. Maarten will co-host the 11th Edition of the Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) in collaboration with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).

The planning committee indicated that the plans are progressing well and that the Government encourages stakeholders in the industry to attend the conference and to work in collaboration with related stakeholders to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible in order to mitigate the drastic effects of disasters affecting the island.

The theme this year for the conference is: “The Road to Resilience Checkpoint 2019: Safeguarding Our Communities, Livelihoods, and Economies.” It will take place from December 2-6.

For those persons and/or organizations interested, to please visit the website www.cdema.org/cdm11/ for more information or email cdm11@sintmaartengov.org for more detailed request or information. There is a nominal fee attached to the conference.

The conference’s objectives are for members and attendees to dialogue, to work together, to share innovative and practical ideas, and learn from others’ experiences in the many areas in the Disaster Management sectors.

Due to the increase in disaster activity from environmental effects with targeted threats to the Caribbean in the areas of social, cultural, and economic areas, it simply behooves the region to collaborate to mitigate disaster effects, said the organizers.

There will be an expected amount of 300 persons from mainly across the region.

At the conference, there will be in-depth sessions exploring the many areas in Disaster Management: monitoring assessment, institutional strengthening, logistics and relief management, reviews of disaster management strategies and operational guidelines, performance monitoring, safeguarding livelihoods, building community resilience, World Bank preparedness, safeguarding through early warning systems, performance monitoring, conference big ideas, among others. There will be a closing ceremony.

In addition, to balance the extraordinary work, there will be youth parliamentary debate, cultural presentations, exhibitions, and a film festival.