Disaster Risk Management Centre of Excellence (CoE)

Disaster Risk Management (DRM) refers to the systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster.

Centre of Excellence (CoE), on the other hand, refers to a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support and/or training for a focus area. Within an organization, a center of excellence may refer to a group of people, a department or a shared facility. It may also be known as a competency center or a capability center. The term may also refer to a network of institutions collaborating with each other to pursue excellence in a particular area.

National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU) in collaboration with stakeholders is in the process of coming up with a Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Centre of Excellence (CoE) which will be a shared facility to provide trainings and benchmarking on best practices, research and trainings on Disaster Risk Management and other related fields. The CoE will be one of its own kinds in the region and beyond and will, therefore, come in handy at the most opportune moment when the region needs information and best practices in Disaster Risk Management.

National Disaster Management Unit (NDMU), being the lead agency in the establishment of the Centre of Excellence has already secured a five (5) acre piece of land for development of the Disaster Risk Management Centre of Excellence. It is important to note that the process for development of the Centre of Excellence is still underway and that there exist some challenges besides the notable successes so far. NDMU appeals to all stakeholders and partners both local and international to support this noble initiative of development of a Disaster Risk Management Centre of Excellence. The support may be in various aspects including funding of the development projects and sponsoring of courses, trainings, research projects and seminars.