FEMA harps on capacity building for disaster management

The Director General Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr Abbas Idriss, has stated that capacity building is a vital aspect of disaster management.

The FEMA DG stated this at the opening ceremony of the ongoing one week strategic executive seminar for Nigeria emergency management stakeholders organised by NEMA in Abuja.

Idriss stressed that if the drivers of disaster management do not update their skills or are not knowledgeable enough they would continue to do the wrong thing in wrong direction.

He commended the tenacity of the Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed Habib, for having keen interest in building the capacities of State Emergency Management Agencies.

In his words: “I want to appreciate the Director General of NEMA for putting this executive seminar together for all the participants here. You will agree with me that capacity building is a very vital aspect of disaster management, if the drivers of disaster management cannot update it and are not knowledgeable enough then we will continue to do a wrong thing in a wrong direction.

“I remember last year, we had the multi agency coordination training and this year we are having another training. This has shown that the Director General is really very interested in building the capacities of the State Emergency Management Agencies,”he added.

While appreciating NEMA DG,for sustaining the seminar over the years, Dr Iddriss also appealed that, going forward, the SEMAs should have more training in different aspects of disaster management.

Leader and lead facilitator of the seminar, Director, Bournemouth University International Disaster Management, Dr Richard Gordon, explained that the institute was founded in 2001 and provides world-class training and technical assistance in disaster management in order to help reduce risks, build resilience and ensure rapid and sustainable recovery when disasters strike.

Dr Richard added that the team has years of experience working in the UK and overseas assisting governments, ministries, NGOs and multi-national organisations with disaster and crisis preparedness, response and recovery.