THE Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) — the secretariat for the National Disaster Risk Management Volunteers’ Programme (NDRMVP) — is to design a database application that will serve as the archive for volunteer data at all levels.

The NDRMVP is Jamaica’s disaster/emergency management volunteers programme, which seeks to bring under one umbrella, volunteers from various institutions across the island to render service in the pre and post impact phases of a disaster. It is designed to strengthen and support the national, parish and community in keeping with the mandate of the programme by assisting the public through education and mitigation before and when a disaster strikes, whilst enriching our members in the process. This programme targets individuals and organisations with the capacity to efficiently mobilise persons and equipment to avert major disruption.

In an attempt to develop the database for the NDRMVP, a two-member team from the White Helmets Commission (Argentina) was in Kingston recently to conduct an investigation on the database needs of the programme.

The investigation has resulted in efforts to define and design the main functionalities of the database application and several meetings were conducted at the ODPEM offices with personnel involved in the programme, along with stakeholders and the White Helmets database experts. Discussions surrounded the basic requirements and functionalities needed on the application, as presented by the ODPEM.

The ODPEM said the database is envisioned to reduce and eliminate main issues in volunteer registration, agencies, groups, organisation administration, emergency set- ups or follows- ups, database search, reporting and configuration.