*Solicits UNICEF’s Support
By Miriam Humbe
Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), Mustapha Habib Ahmed on Monday, led other stakeholders to launch the National Contingency Plan for Nigeria commencing 2023- 2025.
In his keynote address, the Director General said that the occasion marked a significant milestone in our collective efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of our nation and its people in the face of potential natural and human induced emergencies and disasters.
Ahmed said the importance of a National Contingency Plan cannot be overstated as Nigeria has experienced quite a number of human and natural disasters, public health emergencies, and other unforeseen events which can occur at any moment, causing immense devastation and disruption of the functioning of society.
He said: “It is our duty, as disaster managers and citizens, to ensure that we are adequately prepared to respond swiftly and efficiently to such situations.
“Together, we represent a diverse range of expertise, backgrounds, and organizations, all united by a common goal: to launch and put into formal use an effective National Contingency Plan that will guide us in times of crisis.
“Over the past months and years, countless hours of hard work, research, and collaboration have gone into the development of this plan.
“Experts from various sectors have contributed their knowledge and experience, drawing upon lessons learned from past disasters and incorporating the latest best practices in disaster management.”
The NEMA boss expressed his sincere gratitude to UNICEF for supporting the process and all those who contributed in one way or the other to this remarkable endeavour.
He said: “It is important to emphasise that NEMA in collaboration with UNICEF and other stakeholders carried out a risk analysis of Nigeria in 2021.
“The exercise was carried out across the geo-political zones of the country and covered different risks and hazards at the Local Government Areas (LGAs) level, including floods; epidemics; conflict and violence amongst others.
“The objective of the analysis was to identify, assess and rank risks with a view to understanding related vulnerabilities and capacities, while fostering effective risk management approaches among agencies addressing the same or similar threats.
“The outcome of the risk analysis guided the review of the National Contingency Plan.
“As we embark on this launch, let us remember that our work emphasises the importance of community engagement and participation.
“The National Contingency Plan will not only safeguard lives and livelihoods but also reinforce our resilience as a nation.
“It empowers us to respond effectively to emergencies, mitigate their impact and prepare for response should they occur.
“NEMA will focus on disaster preparedness actions including continuous revision of risks across the country, supporting States in development of contingency plans and also focus on Early Warning System to enable communities understand the risks they face and linkages to ensure they are able to prevent, prepare and respond to these risks.
“To do this, NEMA is specially requesting the support of UNICEF in this regard.
“Additionally, NEMA will want other partners to commit to this support in a coordinated manner while working with concerned departments in NEMA, to ensure the resources are evenly distributed across the country especially with the current limited resources.
“As we launch the National Contingency Plan (2023-2025) for Nigeria today, let us remember that preparedness is key to saving lives and minimising the impact of emergencies.”
In a goodwill message Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris who spoke through a representative, Director of Information in the Ministry, Alhaji Suleiman Haruna said that the launch was timely as it resonated with the government’s drive to protect citizens from all risks to their well-being, including security, displacement, epidemics, and conflict.
The Minister said that the plan evaluated 12 different risks, including flooding, health epidemics, and conflict, with a plan to mitigate their impact.
He said some of these risks were natural, while others were caused by humans, even though poverty and socio-economic disparities were identified as contributors to the latter.
In developing prevention and mitigation measures regarding human-induced risks, the Minister called on implementing agencies to design strategic communication plans that deployed participatory, dialogic, and horizontal methods rather than the usual dissemination through radio and television.
He said: “Strategic communication plans aim for specific audiences and apply a mix of communication channels, including mainstream, folk media, interpersonal, IEC, and new media, ensuring that the message development process is inclusive, consistent, and frequent.”
Idris said the Ministry of Information and National Orientation was leading a campaign for national reorientation, so that negative attitudes including those that contribute to these disasters were addressed.
The Minister said: “We are available and ready to provide guidance on the communication component during the implementation and evaluation stages of the plan.”
He congratulated NEMA and the other agencies, especially UNICEF, for being at the forefront of improving health outcomes regarding women and children.
Represented by Chief of WASH Jane Bevan, the UNICEF Country Representative for Nigeria, Christian Munduate said after the devastating floods that affected 4.4 million people Nigeria in 2022, including some 2.6m children, and displaced around 2.4m people, the event highlighted the importance of emergency preparedness.
The UNICEF Country Representative said: “To prepare means to avert or lessen the impact of flooding on those living in flood-prone areas.
“To prepare therefore also means to plan in advance, and therefore here we are today to review the National Contingency Plan.
“This event today is the result of a long journey undertaken by NEMA and UNICEF.
“We embarked on it in 2021 when NEMA conducted a country-wide risk analysis.
“Based on available govern ta sets over the past ten years, we mapped the likelihood of 12 specific risks in the reas of flooding, epidemics, and armed conflict and/or violence across all LG of the country.
“The risk analysis was launched in December 2021, and Is available for all interested stakeholders to read on the NEMA website.
“In 2022, UNICEF supported NEMA In updating the risk analysis. In addition, in the course of 5 workshops that convened State Emergency Management Authority or SEMA representatives from 22 states, the five zonal contingency plans launched today were developed.
“While these plans are multi-risk plans, they especially focus on floods primarily, these also consider associated risks, such as cholera.
“The plans cover all the zones of Northwest, North-Central, South-South, Southeast, and Southwest.
“Early next year, we also plan on conducting the same exercise for the Northeast zone.
“In 2023, UNICEF has supported NEMA and the Katsina State government in conducting a simulation based on the Northwest contingency pian in June.
“It has been the first emergency preparedness simulation UNICEF Nigeria has conducted together with government stakeholders, and just last week, a second emergency preparedness simulation was conducted in Kaduna State.
“We are delighted about the results to date, however this is not the end of the journey.
“In many ways, the process and continued engagement of all relevant stakeholders are key to mitigate the impact of future flooding in Nigeria.
“And like Climate Change, flooding is unfortunately expected to get more frequent and in force.
“We are therefore here to assure all partners of our support and commitment to NEMA and SEMAs at the state level, in coordination with other UN agencies and stakeholders, such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.”
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