World Bank Team for Pakistan called on Chairman NDMA, Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik in his office. They discussed the various aspects of disaster management system in view of recent floods and sustainable disaster risk reduction models to protect vulnerable communities. Chairman NDMA highlighted transformative idea of an artificial intelligence (AI)- based National Emergencies Operations Centre (NEOC) at NDMA as a leading forum for managing, collating and disseminating critical information pertaining to disaster predictions, early warnings and preventive measures and generating Common Operating Picture for preparedness of all relevant departments for proactive response and simulation exercises in advance.

mChairman NDMA informed the visiting team about creation of National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) as National think tank on emergencies spectrum which will be mandated to create a collage of national universities and international organisations for researches  studies on climate change and disaster risk management in Pakistan. He emphasized on conducting the training programs for emergency responders and volunteers along with maintenance of their database for their active engagement in future during emergency. Both sides agreed to form a working group of NDMA and WB to chalk out collaborative framework for building climate resilient communities in Pakistan.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP