Nigeria: 2011 world disaster reduction day celebration
The Centre for Disaster Risk and Crisis Reduction on behalf of its Board of Trustees, the Secretariat and entire Volunteers spread across the country felicitate with all Nigerians and especially the government and good people of Oyo State on the occasion of this year’s World Disaster Reduction Day as it is being celebrated all over the World today 13 October, 2011 with the focus on “involving children and young people as partners in disaster risk reduction (DRR)”
The World Disaster Reduction Day as set aside by the United Nations General Assembly since 1989 is a day to celebrate how people of the World reduce their risks to disasters; a day to create awareness and sensitize people about how best to cope with the hazards they live with and reduce their vulnerability to disasters; and to build a culture of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in cities and communities.
The increasing profile of disasters in the country and the recent flood disasters that ravaged many states of the federation (including the 26 August, 2011 Flood Disaster in Ibadan) leading to loss of lives, properties, means of livelihoods, infrastructures and hard-earned economy of people are signals which indicate that people of this country are vulnerable to both natural and human-induced disasters, therefore, a day like this should be prioritized to create awareness and sensitize people on how to build culture of disaster risk reduction(DRR) and be prepared at all times for disasters.
At CDRCR, we want to reiterate our commitments to facilitating the culture of disaster risk reduction and promoting activities tailored towards making cities and communities in Nigeria resilient to disasters. We will continue to engage the Nigerian youth effectively as partners to make sure our communities are safe for living at all times.
We therefore, call on government at all levels to give priority to issues of disaster risk reduction (DRR), provide adequate funding to all their agencies (NEMA, SEMAs and LEMCs) for effective disaster management and to ensure community preparedness at all times to be able to mitigate the impact of disasters. We equally urge the governments, to expedite actions on the process of introducing disaster management with disaster risk reduction lens to the school curricular at all levels in the country. This we believed will go a long way to strengthen and sustain the culture of disaster risk reduction in our communities.
This year’s celebration however, brings to fore the need to partner young people and children in the effort towards making communities resilient. We encourage the governments, civil society organizations, media and communities where disasters strike to engage youth through capacity building in every aspects of disaster management. Youth volunteerism in disaster and emergency response should given adequate considerations.
As we celebrate this year’s World Disaster Reduction Day, let us all engaged in the acts that will reduce our vulnerability to disasters, strengthen our capacity to mitigate disasters and make our communities safer to live at all time.
Once again, the Board of Trustees and the entire volunteers of CDRCR wish all Nigerians and the good people of Oyo State happy celebrations!