1.Background
Somaliland is prone to multi-various disasters; in recent decades the country has been stricken/ hit by successive droughts, floods, cyclones and other human induced disasters .These disasters cause death and displacement of large parts of the population and affecting the coping mechanisms of the people, worsening the already precarious situation in terms of economic livelihoods and food security in the entire country.
It has long been recognized that all disasters, whether natural or manmade, have negative impacts on all aspects of human lives and livelihoods of affected population in Somaliland. Similarly Somaliland people has never been able to early predict, completely prepare and timely respond to the potential hazards before they cause negative impacts on the community in the epicenter of disasters. In the recognition of that Somaliland government has established The National Disasters preparedness and Food Reserve Authority (NADFOR) under the presidential decree in September 2003.
NADFOR is an autonomous institution of Somaliland government that is responsible to coordinate all activities directly related to the monitoring, preparedness, response and mitigation of emergencies in Somaliland. This involvement includes collection of early warning indicators, and the planning and design of linking early warning and coordinated response with emergency action plans at all levels.
2. VISION: is to see a nation being able to cope with Disasters
3. Mission: to prevent inevitable occurrences of disasters and reduce vulnerability of communities to hazards by improving sustainable coping capacities to minimize overall impacts to disasters on lives and livelihoods of Somaliland communities.
4.Overall Goal :The overall goal of this Department is to establish effective early warning and information systems to Improve capacity for Early Humanitarian Response especially linking the early warning information to early action response ..
Specific objectives:
- Functionalize effective early warning and information systems to early predict, adequately prepare and timely respond to potential hazards before they cause negative impacts to those communities in the epicenter of the impending disasters.
- To strengthen capacities of Somaliland community and government counterparts involved in disaster preparedness to effectively respond to emergencies as they occur and to reduce the impact of disasters.
- to identify, develop and implement innovative projects that increase the resilience of the community against common hazards after the training
5.The Main Component-Units of DPD & EWS Department:
- Early Warning & information systems.
- Training and public education
- Developing emergency /contingency plans twice year for all levels.
6.The Key Tasks of each Unit under the department are as follows:
- Early Warning Systems has strategic plans to:
-
- build up local standards and operational guidelines for conducting comprehensive disaster risk assessments that are in line with national standards and best practices;
- obtain risk information by systematically collecting data from Early Warning Indicators through using scientific, indigenous sources and disaster risk assessments;
- Generate and disseminate risk information and early warnings to stakeholders at all levels and in particular, to communities at risk.
- Establish community based early warning systems;
- Training: For effective disaster management and sustainability of programmes capacity building and training in disaster management is essential. This will be targeted to decision-makers in line ministries, training institutions, NGOs, community based.
- Activities in consultation and collaboration with the funded by various donors.
- Disaster preparedness measures
- Strengthen the assessment system for Food Security and Livelihoods-Sectors in Somaliland through overseeing M&E activities such as baselines, mid-term review, end of Project evaluations, technical visits, assessments etc. and implementing recommendations from such processes.
- Set and maintain a simple Early Warning and Early Action (EWEA) system to assess current situation on the study area.