Government officials discover ‘new twists’ in disaster management during intensive training

No matter how wealthy or well-resourced, all countries can find themselves confronted by disaster. Some are man-made, others have their origins in the natural environment.

But while individual incidents are unpredictable, a nation’s preparedness or ability to respond need not be.

Seeking to help governments prepare for the worst, the Commonwealth Secretariat provided a number of officials charged with responsibility for disaster management with an intensive training programme in May 2009, covering risk reduction, exercise planning and management, and dealing with the media.

Held in Singapore, the Commonwealth International Disaster Management Course attracted 25 officials from 21 countries including three UK overseas territories, namely, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

As well as covering preparedness and response techniques, the participants gained an overview of the work of the Singapore Civil Defence Force and were addressed by representatives from Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, among others.

Zebalon McLean, Deputy Director of the British Virgin Islands’ Department of Disaster Management, speaking in the second week of June after his return from Singapore, recounted how the training programme helped to broaden his understanding of the many “malleable concepts of disaster risk reduction”.

Mr McLean has already put into action knowledge gained on dealing with the media, whom he has had to speak to on three separate occasions since his return, and has also been restructuring a ‘table top’ welfare and relief distribution exercise for his department.

The experience has become “indelibly painted” in his memory.

“I was appreciative of receiving instruction on ... technology, legislation, contingency planning, incident management, the importance of legislation, mass casualty management, exercises and interacting with the media,” he said. “I was familiar with many of the aforementioned topics but the Singaporean perspective and the experiences in incidents, both local and abroad, added new twists, and created gems for learning.

“I think the best thing about this course was the sheer variety of persons and countries involved, allowing for a great deal of information sharing - encouraging the participants to not only be educated, but to appreciate each others’ battles, failures and triumphs in disaster management.”

Janet Bate’e, chief administration officer and provincial development officer for the National Disaster Council of the Solomon Islands, also speaking after returning home from Singapore, said she too is busy implementing the knowledge she gained from the programme.

“A national exercise is planned to be conducted in October this year by the office to test out the country’s National Disaster Plan,” she said. “The resource information gained from the course will definitely play a major part in the planning and conducting of the exercise.

“The best thing about the course is the knowledge gained from lectures and the interaction and sharing of experiences with course lecturers and participants from the different Commonwealth countries.”

Secretariat Links:

• Public Sector Development
• Country Profile: Singapore