UNOCHA trains Gilgit-Baltistan based emergency responders for humanitarian coordination
Reported by Safdar Ali Safdar
Gilgit, November 14: The United Nations (UN) has built the capacities of 50 officials of Gilgit-Baltistan based organizations in Humanitarian Coordination and Response having an aim to train the participants as first responder during large scale disasters and other emergencies through a Five Day capacity building workshop.
The workshop was organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) in collaboration with Norwegian Embassy Pakistan in Gilgit from 10th to 14th November, 2014. The participants included officials from various government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) working at Gilgit-Baltistan.
The course content included definition of key Disaster Terminologies, Humanitarian Coordination and Response, Minimum Initial Service Package, Information Management in Emergency, Camp Coordination and Camp Management, Gender Mainstreaming, Contingency Planning, Humanitarian Principles and Access, Logistic & Warehouse Management and Report Writing Skills. Group works, presentations, discussions and dialogues have also been carried out by the participants throughout the training.
“Pakistan is one of most vulnerable countries of the world which is always prone to natural disasters and other emergencies thus it needs a well prepared humanitarian response team to cope with the disasters with an effective and efficient manner” said Muhammad Ajmal Bathi, Deputy Commissioner Gilgit while speaking to the closing ceremony of the workshop on Friday. He said I have been working with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and visited various parts of the country but never observed the concept of volunteerism among the people as I observed it among the people of Gilgit-Baltistan which is highly admirable. The DC said that some leading organizations are promoting volunteerism in Gilgit-Baltistan which created a peaceful environment and concept of voluntary service among the inhabitants especially youth of the region.
Earlier, UN-OCHA Senior National Humanitarian Affairs Officer and Project Coordinator of the Capacity Building Project Hussain Ullah explained the objectives of the project and also importance of the training for humanitarian actors and government officials. He said that this was the 35th workshop of a series of training for government officials and humanitarian actors throughout the country since inception of the project. He appreciated the active participation of gender balanced participants from various organizations of Gilgit-Baltistan and assured to extent all kind of support to the participants with regard to capacity building.
