Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has assured that his administration is acting on the recommendations of the Disaster Risk Management Review Committee to strengthen the island’s emergency response
mechanisms.

“We have done the review and we have started to put measures in place to ensure that should there be another disaster, our response mechanism would be appropriate and strong,” he said, while addressing a recent function hosted by the National Commercial Bank (NCB) Foundation at the S Hotel in Kingston.

The committee was established in September 2024, in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, to conduct a comprehensive review of Jamaica’s disaster preparedness and response system.

Among other things, it has proposed legislative amendments, improved inter-agency coordination protocols, and deeper integration of climate resilience into all facets of national planning.

“One of the committee’s foremost recommendations was the urgent need to restructure and modernise the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM),” the prime minister said.

The objective, he noted, is to enable the entity to “fully assume its role as the national coordinating body, leading in logistics, stakeholder alignment, community readiness and national response to emergency events”.

PM Holness said that the report provides a blueprint to not only address systemic deficiencies but to build a more cohesive, efficient and resilient disaster management architecture, ultimately protecting the lives, livelihoods and property of every Jamaican.

Describing the findings as “sobering”, Holness noted that “while Jamaica has solid institutional systems in place, significant gaps persist, particularly in cooperation, data sharing and rapid execution”.

The committee examined eight key pillars – the current state of disaster management, the role of ODPEM, critical infrastructure and essential services, community preparedness and parish coordination, emergency response capabilities, the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multilateral agencies, disaster risk financing and resource mobilisation, and the integration of technology in disaster
management.

The function was held to provide an update on the Building a Better Jamaica Fund, which was launched on July 8, 2024, to support the country’s Hurricane Beryl relief efforts.

The fund, administered by the NCB Foundation, was established to facilitate contributions to assist communities impacted by the passage of the hurricane on July 3, to recover and rebuild.

It raised J$459 million, surpassing its target of J$300 million, and bringing relief assistance to 12,685 families.