On February 22, the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB), through its Disaster Cooperation Division (DCD), met with Martin Teal, Co-President of INCA (ICOLD National Committees of the Americas – ICOLD National Committees of the Americas).
ICOLD is the International Commission on Large Dams, a non-governmental organization founded in 1928, currently with more than 100 member countries, whose mission is to lead the dam engineering profession in establishing standards and guidelines to ensure that dams are built and operate safely, efficiently and economically, and that are environmentally sustainable and socially equitable.
The objective of the meeting was to present the Disaster Cooperation Mechanism of the Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas (MECODE-CMDA), and verify the possibilities of cooperation between the IADB and the INCA on issues related to International Humanitarian Assistance in Disaster case.
During the meeting, Colonel Gabriel Farias (Brazilian Air Force), Advisor to the Disaster Cooperation Division of the IADB, presented the MECODE-CMDA, an instrument designed by the CMDA and the IADB Secretariat, with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS). The official also spoke about MECODEX-CMDA, Annual International Humanitarian Assistance Simulation Exercise, which is a training designed, planned and executed by the IADB, as Permanent Secretariat of MECODE-CMDA, with the objective of validating the processes and sub-processes developed for MECODE.
Engineer Martin Teal presented the activities developed by the INCA regional group that, in coordination with the ICOLD headquarters, seeks to discuss and propose common positions on issues related to dams in the Americas, communicate the benefits and concerns related to dams and increase the access to ICOLD knowledge and experience. In May 2024, INCA will host the International Symposium on Dam Safety in Puerto Rico, an event focused on comparing best practices in dam safety and engineering among countries in the Western Hemisphere.
As a first result of the meeting, the IADB saw possibilities for cooperation between the institutions within the framework of MECODE-CMDA, through the exchange of experiences, and proposed the participation of ICOLD representatives in IADB academic events in 2024, such as the II Conference on Environmental Protection, scheduled for September, and the Seminar on Cooperation in Disasters, to be held in October.
The MECODE-CMDA is based on the exchange of updated, reliable and timely information between the 34 member countries and the regional and subregional civil-military cooperation systems. The MECODEX-CMDA 2024 Exercise has the support of the Ministry of Defense of Peru and is in its final planning phase by the IADB, in coordination with the CMDA and the OAS. The 3rd edition of MECODEX will take place on May 31 and June 3-4, 2024 in Lima, Peru.
