Minister of Foreign Relations Carlos Morales Troncoso and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative in the country Valerie Julliand have announced the signing of an agreement for the installation of a major center for facilitating disaster relief, mitigation and prevention work. “We are on the hurricane route, we suffer from drought and floods, and that is why our country qualifies to be a major center for disaster prevention and mitigation. We have convened the Caribbean nations to work together in this initiative,” he said. The DR will host a Center for Excellence in Natural Disaster Management, under the HOPEFOR initiative approved by the United Nations in 2011 in a resolution supported by Qatar, Turkey and the Dominican Republic to back and complement the existing international humanitarian response structure, as reported in El Dia.
The ‘HOPEFOR’ initiative is an invitation by the State of Qatar for worldwide reflection on how to improve the effectiveness and coordination of military and civil defense assets in case of natural disaster.