The Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, is to provide logistics support to strengthen country’s capacity for emergency response and preparedness.
The leader of the team, Laurent Dufour who led members of the group on a visit to Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the mission was initiated when UN Undersecretary-General (USG) Valerie Amos visited the country in July 2011. She added that “In the course of discussions between the USG and NEMA, the agency made request for support and Assistance from OCHA, to improve the country’s capability for emergency response and preparedness.
In his remark, the Direcor General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi commended the gesture of the multilateral body to the quest for capacity on Emergency Preparedness and Response, adding that similar exercises have been conducted by the World Food Programme and the World Bank all geared towards strengthening the disaster management capacity of the country and also ensuring that practices, systems and operations are in line with international best practices.
The aim of the National Capacity Assessment is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the disaster response and preparedness capacity of NEMA. The mission would involve several visits, interviews and meetings to six strategically selected states in the country, Kaduna, Ktsina, Enugu, Ebonyi, Oyo, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
Yushau A. Shuaib
Head of Public Relations
