Disaster Resilient Communities in Nepal by 2050

PEER Nepal Planning Meeting underlines successes and needs in emergency response


National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs-Government of Nepal, organized PEER Country Planning Meeting last September 18, 2015, at NSET, Bhainsepati, Lalitpur. The one-day meeting focused on planning for the second program year of Program for Enhancement of Emergency Response (PEER) Stage 4 (2014-2019).

PEER is a regional training program funded by the United States Agency for International Development/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and implemented by NSET since 2003.

Addressing Inaugural session, Mr. Rameshwor Dangal, Joint Secretary and Head of Disaster Management Division at Ministry of Home Affairs shared about National Strategy on Search and Rescue (SAR). “It’s about helping each other at need, it’s about sharing the ideas and capacities, Nepal being lead of PEER program at the moment should also learn from neighboring countries”, Mr. Dangal highlighted. Mr. Joseph Miskov, Regional Advisor–South Asia, USAID/OFDA acknowledged the contribution made by PEER implementing partners in the region to enhance PEER courses and also develop national and local adapted versions. PEER Chief of Party Dr. Amod Mani Dixit highlighted the need to engage multi-stakeholders including government and non-government sectors, public and private sectors, formal and informal sectors to achieve minimum required numbers of responders in the countries with national level and local level strategic plans.  

The Country Planning Meeting was attended by senior representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs-Government of Nepal, Nepalese Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Nepal Red Cross Society, Institute of Medicine-Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Initiative Outdoor and USAID/OFDA.  PEER partner agencies shared their experiences and achievements in PEER, as well as their specific needs for emergency response capacity building. At the end of the meeting, PEER partners from Nepal arrived at a consensus on the number of planned training events in Year 2 of PEER Stage 4.

Highlights of the meeting discussion were centered on Nepal’s specific needs on emergency preparedness and response, main strategies for development of required instructors and end-users for different emergency response courses, plans, programs for achieving the strategies and targets. This meeting also explained the roles of implementing parties and partnering organizations in PEER Stage 4.  After the country’s experience from the Gorkha earthquake, it is considered by the program partners that emergency preparedness, including training of skilled responders by qualified instructors, building upon PEER’s success in Nepal, must be further strengthened.  

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