A three-day simulation exercise to provide the national security forces with hands-on experience in emergency response and management of camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) kicked off in Kathmandu from Wednesday.

Over 100 participants from federal and provincial governments, national security forces, United Nations, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) are participating.

The exercise is jointly organised by the UN Migration Agency with Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC), Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, and Nepal Army.

“Lessons learned from the devastating floods in 2008 and 2017, and the earthquakes in 2015 highlighted the importance of a rapid and coordinated response and the need to manage displacement through rapid establishment of standardised sites. This exercise is designed to help keep disaster response units, their skills and equipment intact in a highly disaster-prone country,” said Paul Norton, IOM Nepal Chief of Mission.

Under the new Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act 2017, the country’s national security forces are responsible for search, rescue, and other relief work in times of natural disasters. The DUDBC under the MoUD co-leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster, which is responsible for managing camps for internally displaced people (IDPs), with IOM.

DUDBC Director General Mani Ram Gelal said, “Nepal falls among the most disaster-prone countries in the world and simulation exercise like this will help to identify the gaps in camp coordination and management and feed in our plan for the future response.”