CDEMA

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is an inter-regional supportive network of independent emergency units throughout the Caribbean region. Formed on September 1, 2005 as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) it underwent a name change to CDEMA in September 2009.

The participating member states and agencies of the CDEMA include:

In recent years, the role of the CDEMA has been mostly to provide assistance to member territories after the passage of particularly fierce hurricanes. Such roll out of CDEMA personnel was witnessed for Grenada and Jamaica in early September, 2004 after the passage of Hurricane Ivan.

During the mid-1990s, the sudden eruption by the Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat also caused the CDEMA to spring into action, to provide additional support to the people on the island. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDEMA) also regularly monitors the Soufriere Hills volcano, in addition to the active undersea volcano named Kick 'em Jenny to the north of Grenada.

Members of the Regional Security System have requested military and logistical assistance through that agreement after natural disasters as well.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, severe weather had been increasing, especially in the Caribbean region and the Gulf of Mexico. Being able to control and minimize the damage caused by these disasters is critical to life in that part of the world. The world recognized a need to establish an organization to handle natural disasters in that region and in July 1984 the Pan-Caribbean Disasters Preparedness and Prevention Project (PCDPPP) was established. The Caribbean has battled with independence from its mother European countries for centuries and before the PCDPPP came about the traditional way of handling disasters in the area was though private donors, a method that was heavily dependent on others and failing to help their cause for independence.

The creation of the PCDPPP was a collection of international sponsors such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency, the Government of the Netherlands, and the United Nations Disaster Relief Organization (UNDRO). The PCDPPP failed to break free from the direct and indirect dependence the Caribbean had towards Europe and the United States. One significant failure of the PCDPPP was for its participants to fully take part in the organization itself and become more involved with civil society.

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