The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) brought under one roof stakeholders from various sectors to participate in a three-day workshop geared towards improving preparedness for this year’s rainy season.
Participants for the three-day training, which was held at NACCUG Training Hall from July 4th-July 6th, came from governmental institutions, national and international NGOs and different agencies of the United Nations.
“I think it’s crucial to bring all these organizations together because all of them were involved in the response of the devastating flooding that happened last year,” Mary Wagner of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) underscored in an interview with the NDMA website. She continued:”
All of them were involved in one way or the other in trying to support. I hope it won’t happen this year but if the rains are really strong again… if it leads to flash-flooding or longer-term flooding and if response would be needed to help those, who are most-affected by this flooding, this can only be successful if all these different stakeholders work together hand-in-hand and in a coordinated way.”
Ms. Wagner, who was at the end of her six-month stint with the NDMA at the time of this interview, said the three-day training was meant to support improving coordination among stakeholders. “Different actors get to know each other, they learn together, they learn from gaps and challenges that they face last year and learn how to actually improve it this year,” she explained.
