KATHMANDU: A three-day simulation exercise organised by the UN Migration Agency with Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, and Nepal Army tailored to provide the security forces with hands-on experience in emergency response and management of camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) kicked off today in Kathmandu.

“Lessons learned from the devastating floods in 2008 and 2017, and the earthquakes in 2015 highlighted the importance of a rapid and coordinated response and the need to manage displacement through rapid establishment of standardised sites," said IOM Nepal's Chief of Mission Paul Norton. "This exercise is designed to help keep disaster response units, their skills and equipment intact in a highly disaster-prone country.”

As per the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act 2017, country’s national security forces are responsible for search, rescue, and other relief work following any natural disaster.

Moreover, DUDBC under MoUD co-leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster, which is responsible for managing camps for internally displaced people (IDPs), with International Organisation for Migration.

According to DUDBC Director General Mani Ram Gelal, Nepal falls under the 20th most disaster-prone countries in the world and simulation exercises as such will help to identify gaps in camp coordination and management and feed in our plan for future response.

Over 100 participants from federal and provincial governments, national security forces, United Nations, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) took part in the first of its kind simulation exercise as part of a USAID-funded IOM project: ‘Capacity Building of National Security Forces in Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)’.