On August 28, 2023, members of the Disaster Cooperation Division (DCD) of the Inter-American Defense Board met, virtually, with Dr. Claudia Herrera Melgar, Executive Secretary, and Mr. Eduardo Vélez, representatives of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC).
The purpose of the meeting was to analyze possibilities of inter-institutional collaboration and the use of the Regional Mechanism for Humanitarian Assistance in Disasters (MECREG) in the execution of the MECODEX 2024 exercise, which will be carried out with the participation of the Republic of Peru. In the event, the country will simulate a disaster situation that implies the need for international support, which will be provided through the activation of the Disaster Cooperation Mechanism MECODE – CMDA, currently under development within the IADB.
During the meeting, the Head of the Disaster Cooperation Division of the IADB, Colonel Orlando Ugaz, presented a brief summary of the planned planning for the MECODEX 2024 exercise, highlighting the importance of multilateralism in carrying out the event, the background of MECODE , the description of the MECODEX 2022 and 2023 exercises and the importance of using the MECREG in this next stage. In her intervention, the Executive Secretary of CEPREDENAC presented the preliminary document of the results achieved in the III REGIONAL EXERCISE OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, held in Panama City, from June 12 to 16, 2023, and expressed her interest in developing an agreement of cooperation, which ensures collaboration between both institutions, a document that is expected to be signed in October 2023, at an event scheduled by CEPREDENAC.
At the request of the IADB - which compiles, records and disseminates the lessons learned in events and humanitarian assistance actions carried out in the region - CEPREDENAC will contribute by sending information on the experiences and important conclusions reached in its field of action, so that they can be shared at the hemispheric level and thus collaborate with the continuous improvement of international cooperation mechanisms in the event of disasters.
