Twenty-seven high-level Dominican officials committed to training in comprehensive disaster risk management

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, December 12, 2015 - With the aim of increasing social demand and political commitment towards a resilient and sustainable national development that adapts to climate change, the Ministry of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic in coordination with the National Emergency Commission (CNE), led the closing of the "Capacity Building Training Workshop for Making Cities Resilient to Disasters”, held recently in Santo Domingo.

The meeting resulted in the training of twenty seven national officials, experts in comprehensive disaster risk management, building resilience, climate change, meteorology and related areas on issues such as the development, assessment and implementation of action plans for strengthening resilience.

The closing ceremony was chaired by Zoraima Cuello, Vice Minister of Government Monitoring and Coordination, who on behalf of the Minister of the Presidency, Gustavo Montalvo, thanked the United Nations for its hard work in strengthening disaster risk management in the Dominican Republic and highlighted the “tremendous commitment of the participants to replicating the lessons learned, especially at the local level.”

Zoraima Cuello stressed that “the country has a diagnosis of the training needs of all the actors in the National Prevention, Mitigation and Response System, which provides a baseline for a national risk management training plan. A plan that includes seventy-five priority issues in terms of substance”, in which the trained officials will be key as part of the faculty of the National School of Risk Management.

Deputy Minister Cuello also referred to the legal regulatory framework for comprehensive risk management as “a highly participatory and inclusive process that has involved all national sectors and has already produced a draft law that will be presented by the President of the Republic to Congress in the coming months.”

It should be noted that this intervention was carried out with the support of the Ministry of the Presidency for the Prevention, Mitigation and Response System, as well as for the National School of Risk Management, headquartered in the CNE.

The workshop was conducted with the support of the City of Incheon and the Ministry of Public Security of Korea, with the coordination of the Global Education and Training Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR ONEA-GETI) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), through its regional offices in Northeast Asia and the Americas; and led by Sanjaya Bhatia, Head of UNDRR ONEA-GETI, based in Korea.

 

After the closing of the workshop and during his visit to the National Palace, Sanjaya Bhatia, Head of UNDRR ONEA-GETI delivered a Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) and a Handbook for Mayors for the Development of Resilient Cities (published by UNDRR) to Zoraima Cuello, Vice Minister of Government Coordination and Monitoring of the Dominican Republic; accompanied by Saskia Carusi, Regional Officer for Central America of UNDRR - The Americas.

 

About UNDRR ONEA-GETI.

In 2011, UNDRR and the Government of the Republic of Korea established the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Office for Northeast Asia and the Global Education and Training Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR ONEA -GETI).

The mission of UNDRR ONEA-GETI is to promote disaster resilient societies through training and advisory initiatives at the global level to support and develop a new cadre of professionals in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (ACC) for disaster resilient societies. The priority work areas include the implementation of the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction 2015 -2030 through:

Offering technical assistance Conducting training capacity building initiatives Conducting promotional and advocacy initiatives Improving knowledge management and the sharing of experiences and best practices Promoting the establishment of working partnerships.

In the period between 2011 and 2015, UNDRR ONEA-GETI conducted 42 training workshops at the global, regional and national levels, with the participation of 1,900 people from 73 countries.