On December 7, the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) held the Main Planning Conference (MPC) of the international cooperation exercise in disasters and humanitarian assistance MECODEX 2023, through a videoconference with the exhibition of the Joint Military Defense Academy of Ecuador (ADEMIC).
The MECODEX 2023 exercise, which will be held in May 2023 at the Sangolquí campus of the University of the Armed Forces-ESPE of Ecuador, the development and planning is being carried out jointly and coordinated between members of the IADB and Ecuador.
The conference began with an explanation of the MECODE mechanism and an introduction to MECODEX 2023 by the Head of the Disaster Risk Management Division of the IADB, Brazilian Air Force Colonel Leonardo Venancio Mangrich. Subsequently, the Director of ADEMIC-Ecuador, Colonel of the Ecuadorian Army, Luis Lara Tapia, continued presenting the development process of the exercise, the efforts carried out, the facilities and structures that Ecuador is making available.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Sub-Secretariat of Advisory Services of the IADB, the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, the Organization of American States (OAS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ad-Hoc Group “Cooperation in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR)” of the Conference of Ministers of Defense of the Americas (CMDA), the Coordinating Center for Disaster Prevention in Central America and the Republic Dominican Republic (CEPREDENAC), the Conference of Central American Armed Forces (CFAC), the Conference of American Armies (CEA), the Brazilian Defense College (ESD) and the World Food Program (WFP).
