13 July 2012
OAS Endorses Inter-American Plan on Disaster Prevention and Response
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The Organization of American States (OAS) endorsed implementation of a hemispheric plan to strengthen coordination among member States in dealing with disaster prevention, preparedness, response and mitigation that includes closer work with UNISDR and subregional organizations such as CDEMA and CEPREDENAC.

OAS6 June 2012: The Organization of American States’ (OAS) General Assembly has endorsed the Inter‐American Plan for Disaster Prevention and Response and the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. The Plan is a management tool for coordinating governments’ efforts in dealing with disaster prevention, preparedness, response and mitigation.

OAS members include the following small island developing States (SIDS): Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Plan, drawn up by a joint working group of the OAS Permanent Council and Inter‐American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI) and to be implemented by OAS Member States on a voluntary basis, was endorsed on 6 June 2012, by the Assembly in Resolution 2750 (XLII-O/12) at its XLII annual Ordinary Meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

The Inter‐American Plan calls on, inter alia: each Member State to take stock of its capacities and needs in national emergency preparedness and response systems, legislation and regulations; the Regional Office for the Americas of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR Americas) to work jointly with the OAS General Secretariat, through its Department of Sustainable Development (DSD), to strengthen the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Regional Platform; and subregional intergovernmental organizations, such as Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), to act as INDM Regional Focal Points.

The Plan further urges: strengthening the Inter-American Committee on Natural Disaster Reduction (IACNRD) and the Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation (INDM); and promoting the signing and implementation of subregional risk management policies similar to the Central American Policy on Integral Risk Management (PCGIR).

The General Assembly Resolution asks the OAS General Secretariat to: help Member States, through the DSD and subject to the availability of funds, to implement the Plan; and implement a mechanism that takes advantage of INDM’s online database to update, analyze, and systematize, periodically, the experiences and best practices implemented and/or informed voluntarily by Member States in accordance with the Plan’s recommendations.

The Resolution invites States to submit annual reports on the voluntary implementation of the Plan’s recommendations. [OAS Press Release] [Publication: Declarations and Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly] [INDM Website]

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