Anthony Anderson outlines NAR mandate for post-Hurricane Melissa rebuilding

Major General Anthony Anderson, the newly appointed chief executive officer of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority, says the agency is being built to drive major reconstruction and resilience projects after Hurricane Melissa, with an emphasis on speed, transparency and coordination across government and the private sector.

The NAR was created under legislation passed in May to help fast-track large recovery and rebuilding projects following the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa last year. Anderson took up the CEO post on June 1, the same day the 2026 hurricane season began.

Anderson said his work will not replace the role of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, but will focus on major reconstruction projects for the Government, while supporting knowledge transfer and capacity building. He said the storm has created an opportunity to rebuild damaged infrastructure, strengthen the construction sector, expose young engineers to work at scale, and develop leaders across ministries who can perform in a crisis.

He said success would mean delivering Cabinet-assigned projects at scale, quickly, efficiently and openly. In the first 100 days, he expects to establish the organisation, put the required systems in place, and use automated tools to manage projects and reporting. By year-end, he said NAR should be fully operational, with a register of its projects and other related public-private, ministry and private-sector works that could benefit from better coordination.

Anderson also addressed questions about his appointment and qualifications. He said he applied after the requirements were published and was interviewed for about one hour and 45 minutes. He pointed to his experience as former head of the Jamaica Defence Force and the police force, former national security adviser, Jamaica’s former ambassador to the United States, and former head of the JDF’s engineer regiment, where he responded to Hurricanes Ivan and Gustav and managed construction projects of varying sizes.

On accountability, Anderson said NAR will be guided by international best practice, trusted software, accepted processes and systems credible to donors and financing institutions. He said the authority is time-bound and is not intended to duplicate other agencies, but to help coordinate work and remove blockages where possible.

At the end of its mandate, Anderson said he wants Jamaicans to see NAR as having made “a significant and lasting” contribution to how Jamaica does business, develops its landscape and advances growth.