Papua New Guinea - IOM, the UN Migration Agency and Humanitarian Benchmark Consulting have delivered a ‘Training of Trainers’ workshop on humanitarian response, camp coordination and camp management, shelter and settlements, and disaster risk management in Lae, Papua New Guinea, for national and provincial government officials from seven provinces.

The workshop, which highlighted the importance of safe shelter in effective disaster risk management, was followed by four trainings on Participatory Approach on Safe Shelter Awareness (PASSA) for at-risk communities in Morobe, Oro, Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARoB) and Milne Bay provinces.

The workshop and trainings, which were funded by USAID, were attended by a total of 163 participants (142 men and 21 women) from national and provincial government and local communities. The Departments of Provincial and Local Government Affairs, National Planning and Monitoring, and Works and Implementation were represented.

Participants for the provincial and community level trainings were drawn from Morobe, Madang, Oro, East New Britain, West New Britain, ARoB and Milne Bay provinces – areas selected based on their proneness to natural hazards.

The PASSA trainings will help the Government and communities to better mitigate the risks of extreme weather and natural hazards by increasing their awareness of the vulnerability of shelter and settlements in Papua New Guinea.

As part of the training, participants identified historical events, disaster trends and the current situation in their locations in relation to disasters. Based on this analysis, they then mapped out potential hazards, identified existing vulnerabilities and possible impacts, and developed strategies for safe shelter.

IOM PNG Emergency and Disaster Coordinator, Wonesai Sithole, noted: “The objective of the PASSA training is to raise shelter awareness in communities, so that community members can identify the risks affecting their shelters. Through self-examination, they can diagnose their shelter problems and solve them using their own methodology and resources.”

The PNG National Disaster Centre’s Assistant Director Disaster Risk Management, Kaigabu Kamnanaya, said that communities should not only construct shelters that can withstand the impact of disasters, but also they need to analyze potential hazards to determine what measures should be taken in each situation.

“When it comes to disasters, the community needs to determine if it is safe to stay in your current location or if you need to move to safer areas to minimize the impact on your shelter,” he noted.

For further information, please contact IOM Port Moresby, Lance Bonneau, Tel: +675 4 3213655, Email: lbonneau@iom.int or Wonesai Sithole, Email: wsithole@iom.int