By Alpha Abu
President Julius Maada Bio has launched the Disaster Management Agency for Sierra Leone. At the event to herald his formal endorsement of the agency in Freetown, the President gave a rundown of disasters the country has experienced over the years, and the essence for the setting up of a separate body to adequately address such occurrences.
He said he had from the onset of his bid for the presidency, as far back as 2012, viewed disaster issues as a governance problem that ought to be tackled, and he made reference to the Manifesto of his New Direction campaign of 2018 in which he outlined plans to remove disaster management from the Office of National Security (ONS) and have a distinct entity to handle its preparedness and management in the country.
The President asserted the actualization of that of his promise, and pointed out that the agency’s composition will include experts, leaders and policymakers on disaster management.
He acknowledged the primary responsibility of the state for disaster risk reduction measures, and encouraged the agency staff to align their strategies with sub-regional and multilateral policies on disaster management “such as the ECOWAS policy on disaster risk reduction, the African Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Sendai Framework that is ultimately in consonance with the Sustainable Development Goals’’.
President Bio didn’t lose sight of the underlying problems of unplanned urbanization and settlements clustered along hills, waterways and floodplains, and other negative human activities on the environment that he said must be curbed.
The President spoke about the country’s inadequate use of ICT for developing public information and awareness applications or tools about natural disasters and their use in disaster management and recovery.
He then charged the new agency, saying: “I expect you to provide leadership, generate knowledge and expertise, build global partnerships, and produce innovative thinking on disaster management. I expect this agency to leverage bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the area. Innovative partnerships with other disaster management agencies are possible. As a country, I also believe that we can identify innovative ways of funding disaster management that will be less onerous on our limited budget. I expect this agency to develop those forward-looking and effective policies and also guide the Government on how to plan investments in disaster management’’.
The Sierra Leonean head of state called for the full involvement of communities in discussing climate change related issues and factors posing a threat to the ecosystem as a whole. He singled out Chief Minister, Prof. David Francis, for being instrumental in the setting up of the entity as well as the supportive roles of international partners and ONS.
World Bank Country Manager, Gayle Martin, in her statement disclosed efforts by her office in mobilizing resources to support some of the immediate capital investment needs to get the agency up and running, and the development of a disaster Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to provide a coordination platform for disaster preparedness and response. She was full of praise for President Bio for what she said was his ‘’vision, leadership and decisive action’’ that culminated in the establishment of the Agency.
The former Chief of Defense Staff, Rtd. Lt. General Brima Bureh Sesay, is the agency’s Director General.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
