Pakistan on Friday launched the first ever national roster on Surge Emergency Response Team (SERT) under Transforming Surge Capacity Project to strengthen local capacity for responding in emergency situations. The project was launched by National Humanitarian Network (NHN), Action Aid Pakistan and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) aimed at joining hands to provide human resource for emergency response by developing a national roster.
Former chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed (retd) was the chief guest at launching ceremony of NHN Surge Emergency Response Team (SERT) National Roster. Member NDMA Operations Brigadier Mukhtar Ahmed, Member NDMA Disaster Risk Reduction Muhammad Idrees Mahsud and officials of various NGOs also attended the ceremony.
Addressing the launching ceremony of NHN Surge Emergency Response Team (SERT) National Roster, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed (retd) praised the humanitarian organizations for their contributions in disasters, saying that all the organizations have done excellent job by providing assistance to the people facing hardships due to disasters. Ahmed said he always feels great satisfaction to serve the people in need, adding that Pakistan has faced every kind of natural disaster like floods and earthquake.
He proposed to create an expert pool of advisors on disasters issues. He said there must be a knowledge centre of excellence to further strengthen capacity of fighting any kind of disaster. He also shared his experience being an NDMA chairman and gave examples of challenges he faced.
A senior official of NHN said national roster is focused on rapid deployment of technical experts for category II emergency. A roster is a pool of candidates who have already been vetted as viable candidates through the application process and who are ready for immediate selection for emergency response. The basic aim of the SERT roster is enlisting the right people, ensuring they receive proper training, maintaining availability for deployment, and retaining they continue to constitute a key tool for providing additional human resources when surge is needed.
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