Experts from the OAS and CARICOM attend a training course in Barbados on crisis management

With the aim of strengthening the links between Caribbean and Latin American regional organisations during natural or security crises, 24 experts from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) met in Barbados to, for the first time ever, attend a training course on crisis management together. They did so under the umbrella of the Global Crisis Response Support Programme (GCRSP), financed by the European Union and managed by the European Network of Implementing Development Agencies (EUNIDA), of which FIIAPP is a member.

The course, which was held during the first week of October, showed the experts good practices in policies and processes that will enable the organisations to manage these crises, whether natural (hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.) or security-related (violence, state crises, drug trafficking, organised crime, etc.).

Before attending the course in Barbados, the first held in this GCRSP host country (along with Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S.-Washington, D.C.), the participants received training on how to open up information channels, analysis, and reporting. These training courses complete the GCRSP phase designed to give the participants the knowledge required for crisis management.

The purpose of the GCRSP programme, with a budget of 2.6 million euros, is to build and strengthen the response and early warning capacity of the Latin American and Caribbean regions, as well as to enhance interconnectivity between the two areas and their cooperation with the European Union. The activities in the programme are theoretical and practical in nature. They include risk and scenario analysis, early warning, conflict analysis, leadership and strategic planning, cybersecurity, and other related topics.

The 24 experts who attended the training course were from the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Regional Security System (RSS), the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), and two IMPACS sub-agencies: the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC) and the Joint Regional Communication Centre (JRCC).