Kathmandu, October 3

A three-day simulation exercise to provide the national security forces with hands-on experience in emergency response and management of camps for internally displaced people began here today.

The programme was organised by International Organisation for Migration with the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force. “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. This exercise is designed to help keep disaster response units, their skills and equipment intact in a highly disaster-prone country,” said IOM Nepal Chief of Mission Paul Norton in a press release.

Under the new Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, 2017, the country’s security forces are responsible for search, rescue, and other relief work following any natural disaster. The DoUDBC co-leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management cluster, which is responsible for managing camps for IDPs with IOM.

DoUDBC Director General Mani Ram Gelal said, “Nepal falls under the 20th most disaster-prone countries in the world and simulation exercise like this will help identify the gaps in camp coordination and management and feed in our plan for future response.”

He further emphasised, “As the CCCM lead, DoUDBC will assure that camps are set up and services provided in line with SPHERE (Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response) Standards in future emergency response.”

According to the release, over 100 participants from federal and provincial governments, security forces, United Nations, International Federation of the Red Cross and Nepal Red Cross Society are parting in the simulation exercise, which is the first of its kind.

The exercise is part of a USAID-funded IOM project ‘Capacity Building of National Security Forces in Camp Coordination and Camp Management,’ implemented in coordination with DoUDBC and security forces.