By Miriam Humbe
The Director General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed has assured of commitment by the Agency to promote disaster risk reduction in Nigeria to build community resilience against increasing global challenges of disasters.
The Director General gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja at the opening of a technical workshop on United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Monitoring and Reporting Framework 2015-2030.
The workshop was organized by NEMA in collaboration with United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction and United Nations Development Programme.
He said: “The global community faces unprecedented challenges of nature and human induced disasters exacerbated by climate change and extreme weather events. In the face of these complexities, our commitment to effective disaster risk reduction becomes more imperative than ever before.”
The NEMA DG said in line with the commitment to engender disaster risk reduction, the Agency was also following up on the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which was adopted in 2015 in a landmark international agreement among member nations.
He said: “Monitoring and reporting of disaster events remain a pillar in the implementation of the Sendai Framework which is data-driven. It enables the assessment of progress, identifying gaps and analyzing impact of our actions to enable a recalibration of our strategies to address evolving disaster challenges.”
In view of the significance of data monitoring and reporting of disasters, he said NEMA had convened a stakeholder workshop in September, 2022 which revived the national disaster data platform in the same vein, another workshop was organized by NEMA in collaboration with ECOWAS and UNDP in November 2022.
The workshop, according to him, had agreed on the need for an integrated disaster database and risk information management system in Nigeria to strengthen existing database and capacities across Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
In recognition of the efforts on Disaster Risk Reduction monitoring and reporting, he added that NEMA was invited to represent Nigeria in the Mid-term Review of Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 in New York in May, 2022.
He said: “Nigeria’s efforts in the implementation of the Framework were presented to the admiration of the DRR global community during the event.
“Furthermore, NEMA participated in the 78 Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) where I made a presentation in a side event on Disaster Risk Coordination, Human Displacement and Forced Migration.
“Equally of note is our participation at the 28th Session of Conference of Parties (COP-28) in Dubai.
“During the event, NEMA called on the UN and other international organizations to upscale their support for Early Warning Systems in developing and developed countries including Small Developing Island Nations”.
“Just last week from 23d to 26th, January, 2024, NEMA was at Kobe, Japan to attend the International Recovery Forum. NEMA made a presentation on Nigeria’s disaster recovery scenario as part of experience sharing with partners.
“In addition, the NEMA team served in three different panels on critical disaster recovery thematic areas of global interest.”
While appreciating stakeholders for their cooperation and support, he said: “We must sustain the tempo of driving the monitoring and reporting of disaster risk management activities on the UN Sendai Framework Monitor with a vision to achieve the lead country in West Africa sub-region and Africa as a whole.
“The achievement would launch Nigeria to global reckoning and place the country in the forefront of disaster resilient development trajectory.”
The Director General Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) Professor Charles Anosike in his goodwill remark assured commitment of his organization to strengthen existing partnership with NEMA towards disaster risk reduction in the country.
He said: “Disasters pose significant challenges to our nation, and we must work together to enhance our coordination mechanism with disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation for better understanding and communication of cost benefit.
”This workshop serves as an important platform for sharing knowledge, experiences, and best practices in this field. We believe that by fostering partnerships and collaboration, we can collectively strengthen Nigeria’s resilience and effectively mitigate the impacts of disasters.”
The commitment towards fostering partnership among the relevant agencies on Disaster Risk Reduction was also the centre of remarks by other speakers that include the Director General Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) Engr Clem Onyeaso Nze, Director General of National Space Research and Development Agency Dr Halilu Shaba, who was represented by Mr Ademuyiwa Oyewumi, Acting Director General Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency Alhaji Ibrahim Sabo.
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