On April 12, 2023, as part of the presentations planned for the “SEMINAR ON COMPLEX EMERGENCIES AND LARGE SCALE DISASTERS”, organized by the Inter-American Defense College, the Crnl. Ivan L. Siqueira, Head of the Disaster Risk Management Division, gave the audience a lecture on the Disaster Cooperation Mechanism (MECODE).
It detailed the importance of multilateralism and the background of MECODE, a mechanism in which the IADB fulfills the functions of Permanent Secretariat, in accordance with the powers granted by the Council of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CMDA), in the Declaration of Santiago. (XIV CMDA – 2020), ratified in the Brasilia Declaration (XV CMDA – 2022).
In this framework, the planned process to develop and validate the mechanism was presented, through the execution of the MECODEX 2022 exercises, carried out by the IADB, at the strategic-operational levels with its own personnel and with the Contact Points established for the purpose. , and the tactical-operational application exercise MECODEX 2023, developed in collaboration between the IADB and the Armed Forces of Ecuador, which will be carried out in the month of May 2023, at the facilities of the Joint Military Defense Academy of Ecuador (ADEMIC). , considering the scenario of a catastrophic event, with serious repercussions for the population, and effects beyond the response capacity of the affected country, which is why international humanitarian support managed through MECODE is required.
The ultimate objective of MECODE is to have an agile and efficient system that allows international collaboration between countries and existing organizations for the benefit of the population of countries affected by disasters.
