Compared to other countries, Papua New Guinea is fortunate in the space of disaster risks. However, this does not mean we keep a closed door on the consequences that comes from disasters in the country.
After nine years, the National Disaster Centre with twenty-one provincial disaster coordinators from around the country gathered today to give a recap and update on Disaster risk management since the last Provincial disaster coordinators conference in 2014.
The week-long conference will have updates from on the corporate plans, activities, framework, outlook, and services. The theme for the conference is ‘Strengthening local capacities for Disaster risk reduction.
The conference will also have the provinces talking about the challenges faced, outcome, and different ways of handling a disaster risk situation.
The conference will end with discussions on way forward on Friday 10th of November, 2023.
On behalf of the Defense Minister and minister responsible for Disaster risk management, Win Bakri Daki, the Acting Director for National Disaster Centre, Lusete Laso Mana officially declared the 8th Provincial Coordinators’ Conference open.
“We haven’t been interacting so this is an opportunity where we want to gage all the views because at the moment our Disaster Management Act is in review process. We want to collect as much information as possible to move on in addressing disaster management issues”.
“Our Act is very old since 1984. We have conducted so many workshops since 2002 and nothing actually happens. After this conference we want to get the views of our provincial disaster coordinators and fix the Act,” said Laso.