Niamey -Niger — Members of the ECOWAS Emergency Response Team (EERT) have concluded a five-day training workshop in Niamey, Niger on the Global Positioning System (GPS) as part of an ongoing ECOWAS programme to generate a corps of trained personnel with the expertise for handling emergency situations in the sub-region.

The workshop, which ended 23 May 2011, was jointly organized by the ECOWAS Commission and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to equip participants with the fundamental knowledge of the satellite-based GPS which can be applied in emergency situations to facilitate navigation through unknown terrains and optimize responsiveness.

Mr. Godfrey Amaechi Alozie of the ECOWAS Directorate of Humanitarian and Social Affairs, who represented the Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, commended the spirit of partnership and collaboration demonstrated by the UNHCR and urged the UN agency to continue its humanitarian efforts and involvement within the sub-region.

He said the training was part of the mechanism for capacity building and developing requisite skills in the participants for deployment during emergencies. Mr. Alozie urged the participants to partake in similar workshops within the framework of the EERT programme and to make effective use of available resources to boost their competencies for responses during emergency situations.

Training session was divided into theoretical and practical segments during which the participants were taken through the functionality of the GPS system and applying their findings in a simulated field setting. Participants were also exposed to skills required to improve their emergency preparedness.