Bhubaneswar: A one day State Level Consultation on GO‐NGO Coordination was held in Hotel Marrion, Bhubaneswar on 18th June 2018. This meeting was supported by IAG comprising of different INGOs and NGOs like ActionAid, Plan, Oxfam, Red Cross, CRS, Save the Children, UNDP and so on.
We all know how Odisha has earned accolades from all over the world owing to its swift disaster response and mitigation efforts. However, we can definitely improve on many counts. Coordination among one another is an area which we can still work upon. Without proper coordination of different groups, some areas receive a surplus of aid/expertise/resources, while many remain deprived. A coordination mechanism into which each these Agencies including Government posts their aid efforts would greatly simplify the aid process as per Disaster Management Act 2005, Disaster Management policy 2009
Successful Disaster Management strategies involve careful efforts to combine knowledge – share our best practices, adopting new technology – recent MoU by OSDMA to deal with lightening, developing institutional capacities which would not be possible without proper collaboration between the two key players: state and civil society.
Debabrat Patra, Vice Chair of IAG and Regional Manager, ActionAid while sharing some of the key activities of IAG and objectives of the meeting shared that in 2016, PRAYAS booklet containing the best practices of the CSOs in the state on DRR was released by Honourable CM of Odisha. IAG has also helped in translating the SDRF guidelines in Odia together with OSDMA. This poster has reached all the blocks and GPs of the state. He also shared that we need to activate District level coordination committee and streamline the district level coordination. He shared that there will be panel discussions about role of NGOs in preparedness, mitigation and response.
While speaking on the occasion Shri Bishnupada Sethi‐Special Relief Commissioner and Managing Director‐OSDMA spoke about the acute need for effective GO NGO coordination in all phases of disaster and he asserted that State government is committed for zero causality in disasters.
Shri. Jagadananda‐ Eminent social activist, Member CSO ‐Working Group‐ Niti Aayog stressed on decisive community level actions to make Odisha disaster resilient.
Shri Aurobindo Behera‐ Former member of Revenue Board opined that we need to develop a framework for smooth GO NGO coordination for effective disaster response.
Chairperson Inter Agency Group Odisha, Binayak Prusty, Ms. Abha Mishra‐ State Head‐UNDP, Mr.Akashya Biswal, Regional Manager‐ Oxfam India, Mr Sailendra Pattnaik, Program Manager‐CRS , Mr.Umi Daniel‐Regional Head, South Asia, Aid‐etAction, Mr.Tushar Kanti Dash‐ State Head‐Plan India among others attended the deliberations and shared their thoughts.
Most important highlight of the consultation was that the district level NGOs from Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam, Puri, Kandhamal Kendrapada, Nuapada, Khurda attended the meet and shared their views.
Subhendra Ku Nayak Chief General Manager, OSDMA chaired the last session which was on the way forward for GO NGO coordination for the coming days.
A booklet on DM Act in Odia was also released on the occasion.
As a follow up of the meeting, all the recommendations and way forward will be shared with OSDMA and Honourable Minister, Revenue and Disaster management Department Shri Maheswar Mohanty at a later stage for effective GO NGO coordination.
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