CDME MOU with Dominican Republic benefits Belize

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (C.D.E.M.A.) and the National Emergency Commission of the Dominican Republic today signed a revised Memorandum of Understanding. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency is an institution of CARICOM with responsibility for the coordination of emergency response and relief efforts to any of its nineteen member states, including Belize. The M.O.U. covers areas of mutual interest, including collaborative efforts to support a regional disaster resilience agenda. So, how does this M.O.U. benefit Belizeans? That’s what we asked Elizabeth Riley the Executive Director of CDEMA, via Zoom.

Elizabeth Riley, Executive Director, CDEMA

“To indicate that the collaboration with the Dominican Republic is extending to all CDEMA participating states. There are twenty of those participating states, of which Belize is one. We have made a commitment to support each other in none emergency times, and during those periods we will collaborate on exercising and simulations. This is one of the areas. The intention there is really to identify the ways in which we can support each other when individual CDEMA participating states are impacted, or if the Dominican Republic is impacted. There are many resources and assets available within the space of the Dominican Republic. This Memorandum of Understanding provides an avenue for us to be able to access those resources and similarly for the CDEMA system and CDEMA participating states to provide assistance to the Dominican Republic in areas where we can in an emergency event.”