NEMA Partners UN-OCHA on Disaster Management
… Renews Commitment to Building Safer, Resilient Communities
By Stella Omona
Abuja
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the UN-OCHA have expressed commitment to continue to work together to strengthen disaster management towards building stronger and resilient communities in the country.
Both agencies pledged the commitment when the Head of UN OHA Nigeria Office, Mr. Trond Jensen led a delegation on a courtesy visit to the newly appointed Director General of NEMA, Zubaida Umar in Abuja on Tuesday.
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The DG who highlighted some of her programmes for disaster management, appreciated the efforts of UN OCHA in assisting NEMA in disaster and emergency preparedness, response and relief support to persons in need.
“Your courtesy visit at this moment signifies the strong partnership between our organizations in the shared mission of disaster and emergency preparedness, response and relief support to persons in need.
” Reports reaching me as I took over the stewardship of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have indicated the UN-OCHA as amongst the most valuable partners of the Agency. Your being the first to pay me a courtesy visit as I resume duty, is indeed an affirmation of the strong partnership already between our two sister organizations.
“It is therefore my belief that there is no better time than now to strengthen our mutual support and collaboration as part of renewed commitment to providing timely response to multiple disasters, crises and emergencies across Nigeria in line with our mandates. It is on record that we have worked tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of people affected by disasters and to build the resilience of communities in Nigeria to enable them develop their capacity for adaptation to ongoing and emerging hazards, ” Umar stressed.
She affirmed that NEMA has evolved in its early warning systems, sensitization and awareness campaigns.
” This we have done through the improvement of our early warning systems, sensitization and awareness campaigns; development and review of plans and policies; regular stakeholders’ engagement and the prepositioning of relief materials for deployment in the event of sudden onset disasters.
“We have continued to work assiduously with our partner Agencies at State and Federal levels and with the United Nations system to provide search and rescue support in times of emergency, provide relief assistance, psychosocial and livelihood support option tools to complete the recovery cycle.
“It is our firm believe that recovery is not just about brick and mortar; disaster impacted persons require additional recovery support to get back on their feet and to cater for themselves”, ” she stated.
According to her,
the support granted to NEMA by UN-OCHA and other arms of the United Nations has advanced their shared goals of saving lives, reducing peoples suffering, and building safer and resilient communities in Nigeria.
“In this regards, your commitment to upgrade the NEMA situation room remains quite commendable. An upgraded Situation Room will surely enhance NEMA operational effectiveness in disaster response coordination.
” The commendable initiative will enable us leverage on advanced technologies and data analysis tools to provide real-time insights, improve our communication system and enable well informed life saving decisions by NEMA,” she noted.
Earlier, Mr. Jensen said the purpose of the visit was to strengthen partnership with the new DG of NEMA to continue to find solutions to the challenges facing humanity.
“Sometimes, we face challenges and together we find solutions, this is inspiring and I think that is one of the most important thing. We are living in difficult times and not just in Nigeria but all over the world due to the impact of climate change, irregular weather patterns, like the flood we had a couple of years ago are some of the challenges we are experiencing as humanity.
“The only way we can find solutions to these issues is by working together, drawing from the comparative strength we have, the comparative strength you have. I am so excited to be sitting here with the new Director General of NEMA and I am sure that your experience in the pension Centre will be invaluable in terms of finding those solutions like efficiency and others,” he stated.
