The National Emergency Management Agency has expressed its readiness to draft a seven-year national disaster risk reduction strategy. The agency, in collaboration with United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and other stakeholders, are expected to come up with a national strategy for reducing disasters in the land. The federal agency said this is meant to reduce cases of flooding, boat accidents, kidnapping, banditry, and other disasters in the country.
Speaking at a workshop to develop a national disaster risk reduction strategy and action plan, the director general of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed said: The need for the development of this plan arises from the outcomes of the assessment conducted by Overseas Development Institute on behalf of the United Nations Development Program on the Sahel Resilience Program.
Mr. Ahmed explained that the increasing cases of disasters prompted the development of the strategy.
He also said the agency planned to move from distribution of relief materials to reducing disasters to minimum.
“The recent escalation and growing frequency and severity of disasters in the form of banditry, boat mishaps, building collapse, urban and market fires coupled with hydro-meteorological hazards powered by climate change and climate variability have ignited the compelling desire to develop the Nigeria Disaster Risk Management Plan.
“This is in consideration of the high level of vulnerability and fragility of the countries covered by the Sahel Resilience Project within Africa South of the Sahara. It is on record that the high level of vulnerability of these countries is driven by fragile economies, environmental degradation, extreme weather conditions, low levels of income, and insecurity posed by terrorism and political volatility.
“There is no doubt that working together with multiple development actors under the Sahel Resilience Project will help the countries of the region to collectively improve their resilience in consideration of the trans-boundary nature of disaster events.
“This plan is also very critical in enabling Nigeria to align with and drive the targets of the Sendai Framework and the African Program of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction.”