On November 8 and 9, the Ad Hoc Working Meeting “Cooperation in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR)” was held at the facilities of the Peace Operations Center of the Republic of Chile (CECOPAC). At the event, attended by representatives from 16 countries, the Inter-American Defense Board (IDB) was represented by Colonel Orlando Melvin Ugaz Bartolo, Head of the Disaster Cooperation Division.
The general objective of the meeting was to strengthen hemispheric cooperation between the member states of the Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas (CMDA), in relation to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Assistance (HA/DR), as well as contribute to the development of “situational awareness” on the topic, as a way of responding to the different challenges derived from the impacts of the climate crisis and other emergency situations that countries face, in an increasingly complex environment.
At the meeting, the IADB spoke about the experiences accumulated in this area within the organization and presented the lessons learned during the MECODEX-CMDA 2023 Exercise, highlighting the participation of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Ecuador in planning. , organization, execution and organization of the exercise, which in 2024 will be carried out with the support of the Republic of Peru.
