THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has tapped the World Food Programme (WFP) to bolster its Government Emergency Communications System (GECS) initiative.
Aimed at providing emergency communications system in disaster-stricken areas to aid responders and authorities in making the right and necessary decisions and actions, GECS intends to strengthen disaster preparedness in communities across the country.
Rafael Olivar, who heads the disaster risk reduction management division of the DICT, said WFP’s inclusion in the initiative will help accelerate its efforts in implementing the program.
Aside from acting as a responder during disasters, the WFP will also be involved in the “capacity building component of GECS which focuses on disaster preparedness, particularly in the development of the emergency telecommunications training center and training manuals, as well as in the conduct of trainers’ training and nationwide information caravan.”
The government, Olivar noted, “has limited human resources, funding and communication facilities, that is why we tapped the WFP as they are the expert in emergency telecommunications.”
The WFP is the lead agency of the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), a global network of humanitarian, government and private-sector organizations working together to provide secure communications, reliable Internet connectivity, technical help desk services, among others, in humanitarian emergencies.
It also engages in disaster preparedness efforts, such as training exercises for its partners to be deployed in areas hit by disasters; and coordination with local, national and regional stakeholders before disaster strikes.
“We need more collaboration in terms of capacity building. Open up the international training centers so that we could share each other’s experiences and skills. With that linkage, we can work together more, we can respond to disasters more easily and in a uniform and strategic manner,” Olivar said.