The Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations (UN) is to provide logistics support to strengthen Nigeria's capacity for emergency response and preparedness.

The leader of the team, Laurent Dufour who led members of the group on a visit to Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the mission was initiated when UN Under-Secretary-General (USG) Valerie Amos visited the country in July 2011.

She added that "In the course of discussions between the USG and NEMA, the agency made request for support and Assistance from OCHA, to improve the country's capability for emergency response and preparedness."

In his remark, the Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi commended the gesture of the multilateral body to the quest for capacity on emergency preparedness and response.

He added that similar exercises have been conducted by the World Food Programme and the World Bank all geared towards strengthening the disaster

management capacity of the country and also ensuring that practices, systems and operations are in line with international best practices.

Capacity Assessment

The aim of the National Capacity Assessment is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the disaster response and preparedness capacity of NEMA.

The mission would involve several visits, interviews and meetings in six strategically selected states in the country: Kaduna, Katsina, Enugu, Ebonyi, Oyo, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).