Today, Australia and the United States renewed and strengthened an important and valuable partnership to improve our respective emergency management capabilities. 

Emergency Management Australia (EMA), within the Attorney-General’s Department, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deepened their existing relationship through a renewed five-year Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation on Emergency Management 2015-2020. 

The new MoU was signed today by EMA Director-General Mark Crosweller and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate in Hawaii, during bilateral meetings on emergency management.  

This re-affirmation of the relationship builds upon the success of the 2010-2015 MoU, which has served as a valuable mechanism for Australia and the United States to share knowledge and experiences and strengthen both nations’ capacity.

This relationship is based on our shared commitment to improve the way we prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.  Past engagement has included a focus on preparedness through enhanced planning and exercising for catastrophic events, strengthening community disaster resilience, as well as improving recovery arrangements.

The new MoU will further improve existing cooperation between the Australian and U.S. Governments in key areas including:

• crisis coordination arrangements and capabilities across all hazards;
• policy and planning, including emerging trends in disaster risk reduction, impact assessment, capability development, resilience, recovery, education and community engagement;
• the administration and evaluation of national recovery programs to deliver effective outcomes for government and the community; and
• cooperation in multilateral fora to enhance regional disaster management capacity.

We look forward to continuing the strong relationship between our two nations to ensure we continue to improve disaster resilience across Australia and the United States.

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FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards.

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