By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is holding a three-day training workshop for school teachers on Mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in school curricula, with the National Disaster Management Agency in Liberia.
The workshop, according to the ECOWAS Commission and the NDMA, is aimed at training teachers in the Liberian educational system on disaster related crisis, as well as building their capacities in reducing the effects on the country, with specific focus on the students’ community.
Speaking at the opening of the training in Monrovia at the Royal Grand Hotel yesterday, the Resident Representative of ECOWAS to Liberia, Josephine Nkrumah, said it is necessary to start raising awareness on disaster resilience and reduction in Liberia and other parts of Africa, to join forces as a means of responding to post-disaster situations through interventions.
She said integrating disaster reduction into the education sector is a cost-effective measure to reduce the long-term impact of disasters and helps to prepare each new generation by institutionalizing disaster preparedness into the formal learning process.
“This training workshop on integrating disaster risk reduction into school curricula aims to build the capacity and improve the knowledge and skills of teachers and educators, on making the disaster risks reduction and management part of the school system,” Nkrumah asserted.
Reporting on statistics, the resident representative explained that with the most common forms of disasters in the region being floods and drought, the magnitude of vulnerability and exposure to hazard and losses are expected to continue to increase over the decade.
She revealed, “In Liberia, around 2.2 million people are exposed to floods, 320,000 to coastal erosion, and 2.1 million to windstorm. And with the impact of climate change, the country is expected to see increased risks from these natural disasters.”
According to her, the vulnerability is acerbated to the rate of poverty in the country and dependence on climate change-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, mining, and forestry.
She encouraged the participants to take advantage of the training, engaging into frank and open discussions in order to capitalize on the result of the workshop to benefit the general education sector of the country.
For his part, the Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency, Henry Williams, acknowledged the ECOWAS Commission for being genuine partners to the agency, and the Liberian government for their continuous programs to build the capacity of employees at the agency.
Williams said the training of teachers is very important for Liberia because education is a cardinal platform for the spreading of knowledge to the society. He intimated that it is very timely for the program, because it will make schools resilient and up to date with disasters.
He stressed that the main issue for disaster awareness in the country is the setting up of the Disaster Risk Reduction Platform (DRRM), which will equip school administrators. “There is a lot of awareness under the disaster management agent to educate you and the students for the management of crisis,” he said.
