World Bank mission here to provide technical help to DRMD |04 August 2022
Paul Hayden addressing the DRMD team
A World Bank delegation is currently in the country on a two-week mission to provide technical assistance to the Disaster Risk Management Division (DRMD).
The August 1 to 12 mission being led by Keren Charles, who is the task team leader, will be in the country for the initial part of the mission only.
The assistance being provided by the World Bank (WB) has to do with the operationalisation of the National Integrated Emergency Management Plan (NIEMP) of the DRMD.
The other members of the mission include Paul Hayden, who was instrumental in producing the plan in 2019, and Darmen Ellayah, both senior disaster risk management consultants.
On Monday, the first day of the mission, the WB team held a familiarisation meeting with the DRMD team and briefed its members on the education and training of trainers’ (TOT) materials that will be used during the mission.
On Tuesday the WB team accompanied by the director general of the DRMD Robert Ernesta and the principal disaster management officer Daniel Cetoupe called on Minister Errol Fonseka at his Independence House Annex Office. Minister Fonseka holds the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) portfolio.
The main focus of this WB technical assistance is to enhance emergency coordination at ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) level to turn early warning into effective early actions.
A training session is being planned to take place from August 5 to 10 and will cover two main components. The first component is to train specialist support staff who will be the dedicated DRM focal point from key MDAs to support decision-makers for DRM coordination.
The second component will be to build the capacity of key decision-makers within MDAs to better understand their roles in supporting disaster response and recovery operations.
The launch ceremony will be held today, Thursday August 4, at 9am at the Savoy Resort & Spa.
The work of the mission is partly funded by the Climate Risk and Early Warning System (CREWS) programme managed by the World Bank.
After the opening ceremony, there will be an awareness and education session for the two main committees set up under the Disaster Risk Management Act of 2014 – the Seychelles Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Sez Vac) and the National Disaster Risk Management Committee (NDRMC).
Press release from DRMD
