Panama Forum Analyzes Disaster Response
Delegates from 30 Latin American countries and international agencies met here to analyze laws and rules that may contribute to reducing the havoc caused by natural and technological disasters.

The two-day meeting, concluding Wednesday, is the third regional consultation at the international level in compliance with the objectives of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003.

Participants in the Panama meeting agreed to improve the international response to disasters through the compilation and implementation of laws, rules and principles in that area.

The forum is being attended by Ibrahim Osman, deputy director general of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, among other officials.

Also attending the meeting is Jeremy Gould, representative of the International Development Bank; Walter Wintzer, coordinator of the director of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disaster in Central America, and Jeremy Collymore, of Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency.

In his opening speech, the president of the Panamanian Red Cross, Jaime Ricardo Fernandez, pointed out that over the past few years, the continent has been hit by 3,000 natural and technological disasters that killed 300,000 people and affected more than 183 million.