As the region prepares for the advent of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane season, Barbados has become home to the Caribbean Regional Logistics Hub and Centre of Excellence.
The facility represents a major advancement in regional disaster preparedness and humanitarian response, with the capacity to rapidly dispatch life-saving supplies throughout the Caribbean.
In her remarks at the recent launch, Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Elizabeth Riley, sees the hub as a vision which has become a reality.
“This transformative initiative marks a critical advancement in the nation’s capacity to respond swiftly and effectively to emergencies, as a regional response mechanism.
“The launch comes at a time when global demand for humanitarian action to the hazard impacts and conflict is increasing. A recent geopolitical shift has disrupted traditional support systems for humanitarian action, highlighting the high risk exposure of our system. The CDEMA system must now redouble our efforts towards bridges of reliance, further deepen national capacity, enhance regional cooperation and embrace new and non traditional partnerships, the hub supports this,” she stated.
Ms. Riley added that the hub offers the infrastructure to reposition the high demand of emergency supplies, and the inclusion of the center of excellence within this facility will – through training, simulation and shared practice – equip regional responders with the tools to manage increasingly complex hazard events, train disaster responders and foster sector collaboration.
According to her, it is important that initiatives support the region’s needs and priorities and as such, a complementary investment is also ongoing at the national level, with CDEMA and the World Food Programme jointly implementing a comprehensive relief management logistics and humanitarian supply programme.
This, the Executive Director explained, will support national relief management and logistics policies, invest in training in the CDEMA logistics system and also support inventory tracking of supplies.
She expressed gratitude to the entities involved with the establishment of the logistics hub, namely, the World Food Programme, the Governments of Barbados, Canada and the United States, the European Union and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
“We must continue to work together to ensure the financial sustainability of the hub…and I’m using this opportunity to thank all partners in advance. I congratulate all involved in this initiative. Let this hub be a beacon, a signal that the Caribbean is moving decisively to strengthen its capacity to act quickly, smartly and together in the face of disaster,” she affirmed.
Regional Director of Latin America and the Caribbean, World Food Programme, Lola Castro, stated that the Caribbean region is suffering more from climatic shocks, but governments within Latin America and the Caribbean have decided to invest with vision, and tangible investment, to ensure that the people of this region do not suffer.
“The Caribbean is showing a bigger support to make this happen. Today is a great day. It’s a great example. I think it is very important after 32 years with the United Nations Welfare Program. I’ve worked in 15 countries and four continents, and one thing made me not sleep – [when] the hurricane hits, when the earthquake hits, how long are the people going to be without shelter, without being able to have a bed, without being able to eat? How many days are we going to let them be there, especially women and children…?
“I think this center will be the solution. This center will make all these long weeks and days that they had to wait before now they will not need to wait…this is very important.”
Director Castro added that stakeholders must now examine ways to not just fill the hub once, but continuously, to make it relevant in a sustainable way. She suggested that partnership and cooperation will be extremely important to innovatively finance all the activities.
She maintained that the partners must ensure that resources are made available to those responsible for the management of the hub, which empower them to be able to respond rapidly with the national disaster management agencies and the meteorological departments.
“The challenges haven’t stopped, we have a lot to do, but we are better positioned to help every single person in the Caribbean that will be hit by a strong hurricane or volcano much faster, after today,” she emphasised.