Groups Urge Government to Operationalise Contingency Plan

Cross-Section of Participants at the Workshop

Representatives of Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies, Security and Civil Society groups have called on the Oyo state government to operationalise and periodically simulate the state’s contingency plan in order to ensure effective coordination of humanitarian intervention in the state.

The call was made recently at the end of a three-day workshop on “strengthening humanitarian coordination through a community-based contingency plan” which held at Petonrise Centre, Ibadan. While urging government to make budgetary provision for the operationalisation of the state’s contingency plan, participants enjoined all critical stakeholders like the development partners and private sector to adequately fund emergency planning and response activities in the state as Oyo is prone to several hazards ranging from Wind/rain storm to flooding, civil strife to fire outbreak amongst others.

According to a communiqué released at the end of the workshop, participants bemoaned the dysfunctional state of the Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMC) in Oyo state and called on Public, Private and Traditional institutions to upscale advocacy on public enlightenment and reorientation on the culture of disaster risk reduction in Oyo state. Government was also tasked on the need to mainstream disaster risk reduction into the state’s educational curricula with a view to training the next generation of emergency volunteers.

The workshop, which drew participants from Oyo state ministries of Environment & Habitat, Education, Women Affairs, Information, Oyo State Emergency Management Agency (OYSEMA), Nigerian Police Force and civil society groups like Climate and Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet) and Centre for Peace Building and Disaster Response (CEPADR), was organised by the West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP) with support from Oxfam Novim