BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Chairman of the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Shawn Edward, is urging member countries that have defaulted on their financial obligations to the regional organization to honor their commitments.
Edward, also the Sustainable Development Minister in St. Lucia, told reporters that the regional disaster response agency was ramping up efforts to help residents better prepare for natural disasters.
While he could not disclose the amount owed to CDEMA by regional governments, Edward noted that some of the 19 members were not up-to-date on their commitments and efforts were being made to reach an amicable solution to the problem.
He acknowledged that while revenue streams had been restricted over the past two years, “this is not in any way making an excuse for member territories who default on payments.
“I can tell you that since I came in, I have put pen to paper, writing to participating territories to let them know their financial statements with the organizations, their responses have been very encouraging. We understand the difficulties some of the participating territories face now.”
Edward said he was optimistic that shortly, there would be some movements “in terms of the defaulting countries making good on their commitment and owning up and making their contributions available because funding is critical for the agency’s daily operations.”
According to CDEMA’s most recent annual report for the 2019/2020 period, total contributions approved for the financial year from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020, were an estimated US$1.319 million.
CDEMA said that the Barbados government had agreed to pay US$130,647.21, increasing the total contributions payable to over US$1.343 million.
“The governments of Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia, St Kitts, and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Turks and Caicos Islands all made advance contributions. Total contributions received for the period under review totaled US$1,490,304.62. The percentage of total contributions received for 2019/2020 was 76.39 percent,” said the report.
Edward, also St Lucia’s Minister of Education, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, took up the chairmanship of CDEMA last August and paid a one-day visit to the agency’s headquarters on Tuesday, meeting with senior management and other staff.
He also met with Canada’s Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, Harjit Sajjan, who is in Barbados, as part of a more comprehensive Caribbean visit on regional priority issues.
Edward told reporters that part of that meeting would be to discuss how Canada can increase its support to the region’s disaster preparedness efforts.
“CDEMA is a very critical organization for the region. If ever there was a time for us to pool resources together to treat an essential issue for the area’s people, now is the best time. So we need a strong CDEMA.
“We need CDEMA to get as much support as it can from participating territories and also some of the international organizations and friendly governments that we have been working with over the years,” Edward said, adding that the region did not have any “windfall” on which to depend.
Edward said a significant part of the 18-year-old agency’s efforts in the coming months would be to raise public awareness with a focus on schoolchildren through CDEMA’s National Safe School program, which was introduced in 2020 with the training of individuals in participating member states.
“We have a solemn mandate that we will continue to execute on behalf of the people of the region to the best of our abilities, and we need all civil society organizations and government agencies to work in unison,” Edward said.
and then , Shawn Edward, is urging member){kind=link}