LAHORE:
“Pakistan needs highly trained professionals to manage and direct programmes to reduce public health threats, such as dengue outbreak, that continues to plague us,” said speakers during a seminar, Role of Academia and Media in Human Disaster Management, held at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday. The seminar was organised by UHS Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) director Prof Arif Rashid Khawaja, in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), UK.
LSTM Humanitarian Studies director Prof Timothy O’ Dempsey said humanitarian assistance had become a rapidly expanding, billion dollar, global industry with an estimated workforce of 250,000, that directly impacted the lives, livelihood, health and well being of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people.
In recent years, he said, greater emphasis had been placed on standard setting and accountability in humanitarian action, adding that this had been accompanied by a growing interest in ‘professionalising’ the sector.
“The key challenges in this complex issue of humanitarian professional development require collaboration between humanitarian organisations, academic institutions, other training providers and where appropriate, national and international professional accreditation and registration bodies,” the professor said.
With reference to the recent dengue fever outbreak in Punjab, Prof O’ Dempsey emphasised the need for effective early warning systems, disaster preparedness, contingency planning, disease surveillance, epidemic intelligence and response. He also highlighted the crucial importance of education, capacity building and sustainable human resource development as keys to reducing vulnerability to disease and disaster associated with climate change.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir said that with the probability of disaster occurrence increasing every year, there needs to be a holistic approach to pre-empt, mitigate and strategise about managing a post disaster scenario. He added that the approach required commitment of the government trained human resource, a new vision of academia towards disaster management as an expert field, and a systemic management of data at public and private level. He said institutions such as UHS could play a crucial role in this regard, adding that the government had incorporated disaster management in the curricula of schools and professional educational programmes. The new curriculum would be taught from the current academic session.
Vice Chancellor Prof Malik Hussain Mubashar said that historically, disaster management in Pakistan had revolved around floods, focusing on rescue and relief. After each disaster, the government incurred considerable cost in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the affected. But, he added, in view of recent events such as the dengue fever outbreak and adverse drug reactions, there needed to be a paradigm shift from relief to a risk management approach to disaster management. The vice chancellor said a training curriculum for a course on effective disaster risk management needed to be developed.
Prof Mubashar further said the UHS and LSTM had entered into an agreement to collaborate in devising joint strategies for promoting awareness, providing cheap and affordable preventive solutions and encouraging indigenous research on tropical diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, hepatitis, dengue, malaria and other vector-borne diseases. He said UHS in collaboration with LSTM would launch a diploma in humanitarian assistance this year.
Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) chief of staff Brig Syed Wajid Raza said that there was a need for sharing expertise and learning from past experiences. He said the media played a vital role in educating the public about disasters, warning against hazards, gathering and transmitting information about affected areas, alerting government officials, relief organisations and the public to specific needs and facilitating discussions about disaster preparedness and response. For the media to fill these roles more effectively, he added, the scientific and disaster mitigation organisations needed to establish and strengthen working relationships with the media.
Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) Director General Dr Rizwan Naseer said that every disaster was a wake-up call, an opportunity for development. “The role of a rescuer in today’s society is exemplifying dedication, commitment and sacrifice.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2012.
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