PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The week of May 10th the third bi-annual ‘Crisis Management Week, Caribbean parts of the Kingdom’ was hosted in The Hague, The Netherlands. A small delegation from Sint Maarten participated to provide input and perspective on comprehensive disaster management in the context of Sint Maarten. The Sint Maarten delegation consisted of representatives of the disaster management teams Mr. Paul Martens, Mr. Silvanico Pauletta and Ms. Eunelda Cairo.
The Crisis Management Week is an initiative of all the disaster coordinators within the Kingdom. The aim is to achieve a more coordinated cooperation and to perpetuate and strengthen cooperation in crisis management in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. This is achieved through discussions on various crisis-related topics, information sharing, fine-tuning processes and expressing a clear will to collaborate and build bridges between the different islands.
Further, the L.O.C.C. and N.C.C., the crisis coordination centers in the Netherlands, were visited whereby discussion where held in which way they can support the islands in times of crisis. Lectures were given on humanitarian aid, the Kingdom Security analyses and all the crisis coordinators provided a presentation on the state of affairs with regards to crisis management in their respective islands.
The update Sint Maarten was able to give pertains, among others, an update on the Function Book for the Office of Disaster Management, cooperation with the L.O.C.C. and, lastly, the various EU funded projects for crisis management, such as the Fostering Resilient Crisis Management project, the establishment of the Office of Disaster Management project and the Early Warning System Project. These projects are implemented by BAK on behalf of ODM and funded through the RESEMBID programme.
