MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR COPING

WITH DISASTER

BY
MAJ FDA KONADU
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 INTRODUCTION
• In the 1980’s number of disasters and their impacts were
increasing.
• UN declaration GAD 44/236 of 1989 declared the 1990’s as the
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
• Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction held in Yokohama,
Japan in May 1994.
• The conference established the International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction (ISDR) to replace the defunct IDNDR.
• The Yokohama strategy mandated each country to establish a
permanent disaster management organization.

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 INTRODUCTION (CONT)
• In response to the YOKOHAMA strategy, NADMO was
established by Act 517 of 1996 to manage disasters and similar
emergencies in the country.

• Structured and placed under the ministry of the interior, to enable

it coordinate all the relevant civil authorities at the national, regional
and district levels.

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 ORGANISATION
NADMO CABINET
• Act 517 of 1996/ Act 927 in 2016
• 10 Reg Sec
NSC
• 243 MMD Sec
• 900 Zonal Offices
NATIONAL DISASTER NATIONAL DISASTER INTERNATIONAL
MANAGEMENT OFFICE COMMITTEE ASST.

PREPAREDNESS RESPONSE RECOVERY

GOVT DEPT / OPS CONTROL TECHNICAL

NGOs GROUP ADVISORY TEAM

REGIONAL DISASTER
COMMITTEE NATIONAL EMERGENCY GOVT DEPTs /NGOs
OPS CENTER

DISTRICT REGIONAL DISASTER

COMMITTEE GOVT DEPTS/NGOs COMMITTEE

REGIONAL DISASTER RECOVERY

COMMUNITIES COMMITTEE PROGRAMMES

DISASTER AREAS
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 ESSENTIALS ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
• It does not act independently of government.
• It does not control other government departments.
• It does not act outside the terms of reference given to it by
government.
• Co-ordination of the total government involvement.
• Community involvement.
• Specialist facilities and systems.

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 COUNTER-DISASTER PLANS
- Need for an adequate counter-disaster plan.
- An adequate plan will provide the following advantages:
• A clear and coherent approach to dealing with disaster.
• A common reference for all departments and authorities
which have roles in counter-disaster activities.
• A basis for coordinated action.
• Clear allocation of responsibilities.
• A setting against which to review and evaluate current
and future disaster management requirement.

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PLANNING

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 PITFALLS IN PLANNING
• Lack of clear national policy.

• Inadequate funding.

• Limited expertise.

• Unrevised and out-of-date plan.

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 OTHER PITFALLS IN PLANNING

• Year X – The country was hit by a disaster, resulting

in great damage, destruction and loss.

• Year X +1 – The government with assistance from

the UN produced a National Disaster Plan.

• Year X+3 – Another disaster struck the country, the

plan was brought into action and the situation
handled satisfactorily. The plan was reviewed and
minor amendment made.
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 OTHER PITFALLS IN PLANNING (CONT)
• Year X+7 – Another disaster struck and the plan was brought but
did not work.

• Reasons for the failure:

• The plan had not been reviewed during the previous 4 years and
had therefore become stale.
• During the same 4 years period, a new government had made
significant changes to government structure. Thus the plan was
no longer applicable to current circumstance.
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 CRITICAL AREAS IN PLANNING
• The crises pressure which arises from disaster impact.

• The effect of disaster impact on the organizational structure.

• Deficiencies in the information management systems

• Inadequate planning for post-impact survey, assessment and

reporting.

• Allocation of task to resource organisations.

• Cooperation of counter-disaster effort.

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 UTILISATION OF RESOURCES
One of the most difficult problems in disaster management is to advice
on optimum utilization of resources. Difficulty arises from fol:
• Counter-disaster planning has been inadequate.
• All potential resources have not been identified during the planning
process.
• Resource organisations have not been accurately assessed in
terms of their capability, availability and durability.
• Allocation of task to resource organisations has not been accurate
or appropriate. 12
 UTILISATION OF RESOURCES (CONT)
• Resource organisations are not sufficiently skilled in carrying out
allotted tasks.
• Some resources may be destroyed or put out of action by disaster
impact.
• Delays may occur in the availability and application of resources.
• Resource organisations have had insufficient practice in their disaster
roles, especially in coordinating their activities, with those of other
resource organisations.
• Poor direction of resources may result in duplication or gaps in
disaster response activities.

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 UTILISATION OF RESOURCES (CONT)
• The system for directing the use of resource organisations and co-
ordinating their activities with those of other resource organisations.

• Inadequate and/or inaccurate information may lead to ineffective

deployment and utilisation of resources.

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 SPECIALISTS SKILLS

• Search and rescue.

• Survey, assessment and reporting.
• Mobile medical teams.
• Evacuation.
• Emergency welfare (eg. mass feeding programmes).
• Emergency shelter (eg. erection of tentage, emergency building
repairs).
• Emergency logistics.
• Staffing of emergency operations centres (ECOs), including mobile
ones.
• Information management.
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TRAINING NEEDS

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 MAJOR TRAINING AREAS

“BY CONTRAST, UNSKILLED AND UNTRAINED DISASTER OPERATIVES

CAN WELL BE A MENACE TO THEMSELVES AND TO OTHER PEOPLE”.

• Own training needs and frame individual policies accordingly. To take

examples from other countries or academic sources, and try to apply
them as exact “blue prints” is likely to prove unsatisfactory.

• Training programmes must be designed to be compatible with and to

give support to disaster plans.

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 TYPES OF TRAINING
• In-Country Training. This should essentially address domestic training
needs, in accordance with national policy and its selected programmes.
Such training should utilise in-country resources. It should comprise of
a variety of activities such as, seminars, workshops, courses, exercises
etc.

• International Training. International training is usually designed to

broaden the knowledge of key disaster management officials, mainly
through the exchange of views, ideas and experiences which it
provides. It should be regarded as an important adjunct to in-country
training but not as a substitute for the latter.

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 SCOPE OF TRAINING ACTIVITY
• National disaster management policy.

• The overall disaster management structure, through all levels.

• All relevant plans including, for instance, those of individual

government departments and non-government organisatons.

• Requirements for public education and awareness, with which training

programmes need to be compatible.

• Other relevant sources of information (eg. Comparison with overseas

training programmes). 19
CONCLUSION

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QUESTIONS

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