Statement on GDIN by

the United States Ambassador to Italy

See also

AMBASSADOR’S REMARKS

AT OPENING OF

GDIN CONFERENCE

JUNE 19, 2002

Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here in these historical buildings, and to join you at the beginning of your work. I have two tasks:

First, to thank the organizers for providing these outstanding surroundings and an extraordinary and stimulating program; and second, to acknowledge the scores of international experts and leaders from the disaster relief community who have gathered here this week for this very important conference.

First, the thank-yous. For making the Santo Spirito complex available, that thank you goes to professor Capparoni who is the director of the complex, and a distinguished physician.

I would like to thank the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Superior Institute of Health, who are the co-organizers of this conference. Without their months of dedicated and closely coordinated work, this meeting would not have been possible. I want to recognize the leadership of Dr. Guerra and his team at the Superior Institute of Health and of Dr. Bellelli at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thanks also to the many Italian ministries and agencies which have contributed time and expertise to the planning of the program.

I know your efforts over the next few days will be vitally productive for all of us.

I would also like to acknowledge the sizeable U.S. delegation here today.

Those leaders are Ambassador Michael Southwick from the Department of State and Ellen Engleman from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Our team includes senior representatives from across the U.S. government and the U.S. private sector. I know you will enjoy interacting with these outstanding representatives.

Now to GDIN itself. Let me review the Global Disaster Information Network, the mission of the organization and the purpose of the conference. Some of you may not know that this is the fifth GDIN conference. The first meeting was held in Washington in 1998, with subsequent meetings in Mexico, Turkey, and Australia.

The idea behind this arose from the real experiences of disaster relief workers and planners, who too often found a gap between the sophisticated information and mapping available and their utility on the ground. It arose as a community of government experts, academics, relief organizations and industry tried to close the gap and provide the best possible and most timely information to disaster responders.

In the last five years, the GDIN community has thrived. It has provided valuable service to relief workers responding to floods, volcanic eruption, earthquakes, and other catastrophic events. The theme of this fifth conference, and the first in continental Europe, is “Health and Human Survival: Contributions of GDIN.”

That title sums up the mission of the organization and its overriding value to the disaster community. It’s also a particularly apt title for a conference in Italy, which has a long tradition of medical cooperation with and assistance to the developing world.

Two more notes. First, I want to recognize and thank Dr. Ghazi from the research directorate of the European commission for attending this meeting and for presenting the important MEDIN project of the European Union. This project is the disaster information network focused on the Mediterranean basin.

Additionally, I want to recognize the very special contributions of the executive director of GDIN, Mr. Larry Roeder. Mr. Roeder has been with GDIN since the first Washington conference.

He is a senior officer of the Bureau of International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State, but thanks to the generosity of Ambassador Southwick, Larry’s time has been donated to the building of GDIN. He is probably the most visible member of the organization, and his personal energy and commitment are largely responsible for helping GDIN become what it is today.

So I add my personal thanks for your outstanding work.

You all have much to discuss, and I am confident that the end product of your discussions will be another step forward for GDIN and its work, which is truly of global importance and value. So I wish you the very best during your stay in Rome, and great success. Thank you for coming.