Special Post Cabinet Press Briefing
Special Post Cabinet Press Briefing
At
Jamaica House, Banquet Hall
On
September 10, 2024
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Good morning, everyone.
I didn’t get to hear what Minister Dana Morris Dixon said. Did she say that I can’t comment?
Well, I do take note of the tabling of reports. I believe one of them has to do with my statutory declarations. I’m pleased that they are now before the Parliament, and I am equally anxious to have them tabled so that I can address them publicly but that is not the purpose of my visits with you today. My visits are becoming more frequent.
I have two matters to discuss with you. The first has to do with the announcement of a committee to review our disaster risk management processes. As Jamaica continues to navigate the increasing challenges posed by both natural and man-made disasters, we must commit ourselves to a pathway of resilience. In recent years, the intensity and frequency of such events have grown. For Jamaica, this means that we must stand ready to respond swiftly and effectively to safeguard lives and livelihoods and our critical infrastructure.
The most recent reminder of our vulnerability came with hurricane Beryl in July 2024. Beryl caused significant damage across parishes affecting thousands of households, and leaving many Jamaicans without shelter, water, electricity, and nowadays a human right; internet connectivity, totalling, I’m sure, over 10 billion dollars in damage. The Beryl experience highlighted the urgent need to enhance our resilience. The resulting impact is sobering, and it shows what is at stake for Jamaica if we are hit by, whether it is a hurricane or any other form of natural disaster. Though we recovered quickly from the last natural disaster, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring and whether or not the impact will be worse. We cannot wait for the next disaster to catch up on our preparedness.
In response to these challenges of what I describe as high frequency, high intensity and sometimes overlapping disasters and I want to emphasize this to the listening public, Jamaica is impacted by high intensity, the impact is great. Frequency, they are happening no more often but the part that we must pay close attention to is that these disasters, these unexpected shocks are also overlapping so you could have a pandemic, then you are hit by an economic crisis, whether it is supply chain impact or inflation impact. And then you could be hit by a natural disaster such as a hurricane, and you could be dealing with all three all at once, or you could be transitioning out of one and then you are hit by another and that is the nature of the world today and governments have to be constantly prepared for this.
So, in response to these challenges of high frequency, high intensity and overlapping crises, the government established the Disaster Risk Management Review Committee. This committee is tasked with strengthening Jamaica’s preparedness for disasters and ensuring that we are ready to meet future crises head on. The DRMRC, (Disaster Risk Management Review Committee), will focus on critical areas such as infrastructure resilience, essential services like water, electricity and telecommunications, as well as medical services and community preparedness. These sectors are crucial in maintaining stability in times of crisis, and any failure in these areas can have widespread consequences.
The DRMRC is led by Major General Anthony Anderson, a public servant with decades of experience in disaster management and national security. The committee also includes Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr, a leader in geospatial technology. It includes Mr Jonathan Grant, a retired senior public official in the Ministry of Finance, I believe, and Miss Trudy Deans, a consultant who has been instrumental in initiatives such as the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission. Together, this team brings a wealth of expertise and experience and will guide our efforts to build a more resilient Jamaica. The DRMRC’s mandate is to one, assess vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and services to ensure they remain operational even during disaster events. Critical infrastructure includes water supply systems, electricity grids, telecommunications networks, and transportation routes. These are the backbone of daily life and must remain operational. The focus will be on ensuring that these essential services are designed, maintained, and upgraded to withstand the impact of hurricanes, floods, and other disaster events.
Secondly, the committee will evaluate emergency services to ensure they are equipped to respond quickly and efficiently to crises. The committee will thoroughly evaluate the readiness and capability of all of Jamaica’s emergency services to ensure that they are in top shape. And three, to provide recommendations for improving national and local disaster response frameworks, ensuring better coordination, and ensuring better coordination between agencies.
The work of the DRMRC is not just about addressing the immediate risks posed by disasters, but about building a culture of resilience in Jamaica that prepares us for the future. The ultimate goal is to ensure that our infrastructure services and communities are equipped to handle any challenge, ensuring the continued safety and wellbeing of Jamaicans and indeed the continuity of government in the face of any serious natural disaster challenge.
The impact of hurricane Beryl is a call to action. Hurricanes such as Beryl gives us a stark reminder of the importance of preparedness. Every year under the Disaster Risk Management Act, this room is filled with all the agency heads who are a part of the Disaster Risk Management Committee. We meet at hotels elsewhere and we gather, and we discuss our preparedness, but you are never truly prepared until you are tested, and Beryl was a test. From where I sit and having the kind of general view of the system, I’m inclined to say that we performed creditably but there is room for improvement.
If you were to compare us against what happened in the past, we would be way ahead in terms of the ability of the government to respond, our financial preparedness, the speed at which we are now distributing humanitarian assistance, reconstruction assistance but that is if you are comparing with what happened in the past. We must now be comparing ourselves to what is likely to happen in the future and the gaps that we are seeing now and so the Cabinet has decided to empanel this committee to actually do that work, practical, technical work to advise the government as to how do we close the gaps.
For example, when Beryl struck, several communities were without water which shows us that your water system, for it to be resilient can’t be reliant on only the sole provider of electricity in the country. It has to have some resilience of itself, some backup system of itself so that has to be looked at, that has to be studied, and the government advised. The readiness of the utility provider, JPS, that has to be looked at. What went wrong? What did they do right? Where is the need for improvement in the system? That has to be that has to be looked at.
We have we also have to look at our ability to conduct rapid assessment of damage. The Ministry of Labour and Social Security, they have the standing mission to conduct assessment but when a disaster of the scale of Beryl or greater happens, they would not have the human resources to immediately conduct the assessment, so we need to plan for that. Where are the standby capabilities? How do we integrate technology such as AI surveillance capabilities that you can use AI to study aerial footage to see where the damage has actually occurred? You could very easily, rapidly conduct assessments. And then there’s the whole issue of how do we identify beneficiaries which is one of the main challenges now. You will go, you assess someone, you collect their information, and you prepare a cheque for them, but then you go back and try to find them and you can’t find them. So, there are many issues, many gaps, and how do we manage international philanthropy?
We have a central focal point, but you will always have the case where someone will say, I don’t want to give to government, I want to give to someone else and you will have other people coming up to set up philanthropic organizations; all of that needs to be coordinated so that the impact of international assistance is properly channelled and targeted. My own assessment is that I think we have performed creditably, but there are gaps. We can’t compare ourselves to what happened in the past. We have to be looking forward now to ensure that for the threats to come, which I have said, they are intense when they happen, they are more frequent, and they tend to overlap so we have to have that capability. This is the Cabinet’s first response in developing this committee.
In January last year, I indicated that Jamaica would be willing to participate in a multinational security mission to assist the Haitian state to achieve a reasonable level of security and facilitate the holding of elections. We were the first to commit personnel on the basis that any multinational security mission must have:
- The support of the Haitian people
- The appropriate jurisdictional sanction
- It must be adequately resourced.
In February last year, I led a CARICOM delegation on a fact-finding mission to Haiti where I met with members of the government and stakeholders from the church, business and civil society. The mission was an important part of CARICOM’s approach to supporting Haiti. Ultimately, from that mission, Jamaica agreed to host and train members of the Haitian National Police Force with the support of Canada. Caricom heads of government appointed an Eminent Persons Group, (EPG), to represent the community’s good offices facilitation of the government of Haiti and Haitian stakeholders. The three member EPG consisted of former Prime Minister of the Bahamas, The Right Honourable Perry Gladstone Christie, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Honourable Bruce Golding, and former Prime Minister of St Lucia, Honourable Dr Kenny Anthony.
In June 2023, Jamaica hosted the EPG’s first engagement with Haitian stakeholders for consultations on the formation of a new government. In July 2023, I addressed the UN Security Council on behalf of CARICOM on the urgent need to have a resolution passed to give effect to the multinational security mission in Haiti. The resolution was passed in October 2023, which gave the appropriate jurisdictional basis for the multinational security support mission to operate. A trust fund was also established to give certainty around the funding of the operations of the multinational security mission
In March 2024, with the support of the United States and Canada, Jamaica brought other CARICOM personnel together along with our own forces to begin training for deployment to Haiti. As minister of defence, today we announce that Jamaica will begin its participation in the multinational security support mission with the deployment of 24 personnel to Haiti to provide command planning and logistics support. The deployment is comprised of twenty JDF personnel and four JCF personnel. The security forces continue in a state of readiness to support further deployment towards our overall commitment as the mission in Haiti is scaled up.
Jamaica has close fraternal ties to the people of Haiti, and we stand in solidarity with them. Jamaica also has a national security interest in the situation in Haiti, one of our closest neighbours. It is in our interest to support a long-lasting resolution to the problems in Haiti. Here in Jamaica, we see the growing entrenchment of gangs who organized the production of armed violence with a view to economic gain, spreading terror in communities and weakening the state’s guarantee to citizens security. We see this as an evolving existential threat to law and order and the proper functioning of institutions of the state, not only in Jamaica, but in several countries across the region. It is a regional problem.
The threat of gangs must not be viewed as only a citizen-to-citizen problem where regular policing and the criminal justice system would be sufficient to address the problem. The threat is at a level in the region where gangs and organized armed violence they produce is a threat to the very state. Haiti is the example of what could happen if states and governments do not take the problem seriously and put in place the measures and resources necessary to bring the problem under control.
I wish to thank the members of the security forces who will be deploying to Haiti, and I wish them well. And obviously we pray for their safety and security. I know their conduct will be exemplary and they will take every precaution for their personal safety.
I also want to acknowledge the support of our international partners, the US And Canada in particular, and the work of CARICOM in supporting the process in Haiti.