Papua New Guinea: Disaster management act (1984)
The purpose of this Act is to establish a machinery for forward planning to ensure the efficient, prompt and effective management and control of natural disasters in the country.
The machinery in question is the National Disaster Committee, which is comprised of all relevant departments, including (but not limited to) the Department of Defence, Health, and Finance.
The Act establishes that the National Disaster Committee functions to supervise the national state of preparedness for emergencies and to report on it to the National Executive Council, maintain the National Emergency Plan of the National Executive Council, assign responsibilities for disaster-related activities to Departments and other bodies, and coordinate Departmental relief actions and collate national relief requirements, among other roles.
By extension, the Act creates a Provincial Disaster Committee for each province, which functions to assess particular hazards facing the province, liaise and cooperate with the Provincial Executive Council in ensuring that development plans for the province take into account the hazards it is facing, prepare emergency plans for the province in accordance with guidelines laid down by the National Disaster Committee, and supervise the state of preparedness for emergencies in the province, among other roles.
The Act also establishes the National Disaster Centre, which coordinates all disaster situations and surveillance matters.