Pakistan, World Bank agree to chalk out framework for building climate resilient communities

Pakistan and World Bank have agreed to form a working group to chalk out a collaborative framework for building climate-resilient communities in Pakistan, Radio Pakistan reported.

The understanding to this effect was reached during a meeting of the World Bank's team for Pakistan and Chairman NDMA General Inam Haider Malik in Islamabad on Tuesday.

During the meeting, they discussed various aspects of the disaster management system in view of recent floods and sustainable disaster risk reduction models to protect vulnerable communities.

The Chairman NDMA highlighted the transformative idea of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based National Emergencies Operations Centre (NEOC) at NDMA as a leading forum for managing, collating, and disseminating critical information pertaining to disaster predictions, early warnings and preventive measures and generating Common Operating Picture for preparedness of all relevant departments for proactive response and simulation exercises in advance.

He also informed the visiting team about the creation of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) as the National think tank on the emergencies spectrum which would be mandated to create a collage of national universities and international organizations for research and studies on climate change and disaster risk management in Pakistan.

He emphasized on conducting training programs for emergency responders and volunteers along with maintenance of their database for their active engagement in the future during an emergency.