A four-day training programme on Disaster Risk Reduction has been organised under the auspices of the Directorate Research Innovation and Consultancy, University of Cape Coast and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has commenced at the Pempamsie Hotel, Cape Coast.
The short course, which ends on October 20, 2016 has 20 participants from the National Disaster Management Organisation, Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Fire Service and the Ghana Health Service attending.
The importance of disaster management and prevention capacity in the sustenance of development gains of any particular society cannot be glossed over. This is simply due to the fact that occurrence of disasters erodes gains of development in just a single moment.
Opening the course, the Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) at UCC, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim reiterated the need for academia and industry to collaborate to help reduce the incidence of disasters and their impact. “All of us in academia and industry have a duty to be at the forefront to advocate for reduction in the incidence of disasters. This is exactly what UCC is championing”. He was hopeful that the adult learning opportunity would provide participants the platform to share knowledge in the disaster management.
In his contribution, UNDP Deputy Country Director for Operations, Mr. Mulugeta Abebe, said his outfit was proud to be associated with the course to train cadres and other stakeholders whose line of responsibilities border on disaster management at the policy, planning and implementation levels.
Mr. Abebe said the UNDP was glad to implement the training programme with UCC since the University has been dedicated to the training of highly qualified and skilled personnel in the education industry. “The choice of partnering with UCC in this endeavour has been more appealing in terms of prospects of sustaining and further developing the course to benefit more people after the donor support has been withdrawn”.
That according to Mr. Abebe was the fact that UCC has the expertise, facilities and resources to continue and even elevate it to a higher academic status “without losing the spirit and intent behind it”. He said the UNDP believed that UCC would be able to forge a strategic partnership with NADMO that would allow for some level of inter-institutional collaboration in the implementation of the course so that they would all share in the success story of “a small seed growing into a mighty tree”.
The National Coordinator of NADMO, Brigadier General, Francis Vib-Sanziri, in an address read on his behalf by the Central Regional Coordinator, Mr. Sandy E. Amartey, said the training programme was timely since disasters nowadays take varied forms and therefore need multi-sectorial and modern techniques to manage. “Trends in disasters keep changing these days so it is equally good for disaster managers to be abreast with current trends of disaster and their management”.
Brigadier Gen. Sanziri said the training programme would help achieve disaster management goals by reducing their occurrence and impact should it occur. He said NADMO appreciated the efforts of both UCC and NADMO in bringing issues concerning Disaster Risk Reduction to the front burner to engender public discussion.