ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The World Bank’s Team for Pakistan met the Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik in Islamabad on Tuesday.
They discussed the various aspects of disaster management system in view of recent floods and sustainable disaster risk reduction models to protect vulnerable communities.
The Chairman NDMA highlighted transformative idea of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based National Emergencies Operations Centre (NEOC) at NDMA as a leading forum for managing, collating and disseminating critical information pertaining to disaster predictions, early warnings and preventive measures and generating Common Operating Picture for preparedness of all relevant departments for proactive response and simulation exercises in advance.
Lt General Inam Haider Malik informed the visiting team about creation of National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) as National think tank on emergencies’ spectrum which will be mandated to create a collage of national universities and international organisations for researches & studies on climate change and disaster risk management in Pakistan.
The Chairman NDMA emphasized on conducting the training programs for emergency responders and volunteers along with maintenance of their database for their active engagement in future during emergency.
Both sides agreed to form a working group of NDMA and WB to chalk out collaborative framework for building climate resilient communities in Pakistan.