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NEMA, in conjunction with the House of
Representatives Committee on Disaster Management and
Emergency Preparedness, held a two-day National
Summit on Disaster Management and Emergency
Preparedness at the Banquet Hall, Presidential
Villa, Aso-rock, Abuja, from the 24th -25th January,
2006.
Theme of the summit was
"Legislating for Effective Disaster Preparedness and
Prevention in Nigeria". Being the first
of its kind, it created an avenue for policy makers,
legislators, administrators and other stakeholders
to interact and unite their efforts to evolve and
fine tune practical strategies to develop a disaster
framework that incorporates the participation of all
spheres of government as well as the involvement of
the private sector, non-governmental organizations
and communities in disaster management. The
objectives of the Summit were to amongst others:
• Appraise the disaster and emergency preparedness
and capabilities of the Federal, State and Local
Governments as well as private sector, communities,
security agencies, health service providers and role
players in Nigeria;
• Draw up a disaster and emergency management policy
and institutional framework to cover the entire
country;
• Develop new disaster management legislative
framework which will bring about a uniform approach
to disaster management and which seeks to address
legislative shortcomings.
• Make input into the proposed "Nigeria Disaster and
Emergency Management Act" which shall provide for a
functional national integrated and coordinated
disaster framework that provides for preventing and
reducing the risk of disaster, mitigating the
severity of disaster, ensure emergency preparedness,
rapid and effective response and post disaster
recovery, and provide for the establishment of
national, state and local government and corporate
organizations disaster management contingency plans
and capabilities.
• Develop a framework for the introduction of a new
disaster management funding system (Trust Fund)
which ensures that risk reduction initiatives are
taken and which is devoted to building sufficient
capacity to respond to disasters and provide for
adequate post disaster recovery.
• Strategize on the establishment of a framework to
enable communities to be informed, alert,
self-reliant and capable of supporting and
cooperating with government in disaster mitigation.
• Develop a framework for coordinating and
strengthening the current fragmented and inadequate
training and community awareness initiatives.
The Summit, which was well attended, had
participants drawn from the Public and Private
Sectors, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs),
International Agencies as well as other stakeholders
on Disaster management. The President, Chief
Olusegun Qbasanjo, GCFR, who was ably represented by
the Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt Hon Aminu
Bello Masari, declared the summit open. In his
address, he emphasized the need to maximize
collaborations among nations and agencies in order
to tackle the effects of disasters. The Summit, he
noted, was one in the series of efforts and
institutional reforms in preparing adequately for
both natural and man-made disasters.
Several paper presentations were made at the Summit
which drew Resource Persons from the academia,
Public and Private sectors, International agencies
and other organizations. At the end of the summit,
recommendations were made, particularly relating to
how the nation can be adequately prepared for
disasters and emergencies.
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