JAMAICA is on track for a successful hosting of the Seventh Regional Platform (RP20) for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean in July 2020.

This is the word from chief of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, Raul Salazar,

Speaking with JIS News, Salazar, who is leading a delegation on a working visit to the island, shared his pleasure at the level of preparations under way for the staging of the event.

He noted that “implementing a regional platform is not easy, because it has a lot of aspects to take into account”.

“From the logistics, from the venue, for organising the commitments from different sectors, the relations with other countries – that involves the whole effort of a country, and Jamaica is, at this moment, on top of all the aspects of organising the regional Platform. I think we are well on track to having a successful platform,” he said.

He commended the multisectoral planning team led by chairman, Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie, for its involvement in all components of the planning of the regional platform.

Regional platforms are the UNDRR conferences that bring together government officials and heads of disaster and emergency management agencies within a region with key stakeholders in disaster risk reduction, to foster collaboration and the sharing of best practices and techniques.

The platforms aid countries in achieving the targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015.

RP20 is the first UN regional platform to be hosted in the Caribbean and had its name amended to reflect the Caribbean’s involvement.

Jamaica’s hosting of the platform, Salazar said, is “important, relevant and significant for the region”.

“We wanted to bring the discussion… around disaster reduction in the Americas and in the Caribbean [and] around the problems the Caribbean is facing within the context of climate change, in the context of intensification of the different hazards that the Caribbean faces,” he noted.

The Seventh Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean will be held July 8 to 10, at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, St James.