High level meeting in Central America concludes

(Guatemala City, 3 March 2006): A note of intention was officially signed yesterday in Guatemala City by Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs, Aníbal Ernesto Quiñónez., Secretary General of the Central American Integration System (SICA), and David Smith, Executive Secretary of the Natural Disaster Prevention Coordination Centre for Central America (CEPREDENAC), to establish the basis of a future regional Cooperation Agreement on Preparedness and Response to Natural Disasters.
"We must work simultaneously on two fronts. On one front, development models must be adapted so that risk reduction becomes a central issue in policies of sustainable development. And on the other front, response preparedness should be strengthened, including raising public awareness in high risk zones", Egeland emphasize. He was speaking at the "High Level Meeting on Disaster Response and Preparedness in Central America," which concluded yesterday.

In the two days prior to this event, a "Workshop on Forecast and Possible Lines of Action in Central America for the 2006 Hurricane Season" was held, with the participation meteorologists, experts in natural disaster management, representatives of national governments, NGOs, international cooperation agencies, and United Nations agencies acting in Central American. The main conclusions and recommendations from the workshop constitute the Lines of Action to be implemented as of March, to prepare the region for the 2006 hurricane season and to put into practice lessons learned from 2005.

The main thematic areas in these Lines of Action are: emergency and contingency plans; material, financial, and technical resources; training and human resources; coordination and communication; humanitarian assistance; information; shelters and recovery. For each of these thematic areas, agreements have been reached regarding the proposed priority tasks, the institutions responsible for these specific tasks, and timelines.

Jan Egeland highlighted the importance of such measures given that the vulnerability of populations is increasing faster than the solutions. "For this reason we need to improve and strengthen the capacity of response organizations while we continue to promote the agenda for risk reduction", the Under-Secretary General concluded.

In a field visit to San Marcos La Laguna (Sololá), scheduled for March 3rd, Jan Egeland will personally view the evolution of emergency response projects developed by the United Nations in Guatemala, accompanied by representatives from local and national Government. During his field visit, Mr. Egeland will have the chance to interact with people made homeless due to tropical storm Stan.

According to expert meteorologists, the 2006 hurricane season could be as violent as that of 2005, which broke all of the records in history, with 27 tropical storms, of which 15 reached hurricane intensity.

In Guatemala, Tropical Storm Stan, in the month of October, caused an economic loss of Q7,473 million -USD 983 million-, equivalent to 3.4% of the GNP (Gross National Product) from 2004, according to a recent evaluation by ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean).

PRESS FOCAL POINT

Ms Isabel Garcia-Gill
OCHA
garcia-gill@un.org
Tel- 5586 7502