WFP News Release
February 23, 2012
WFP TO BUILD 1.5 BILLION RUPEE STORAGE AND TRAINING FACILITIES FOR NDMA
ISLAMABAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) have agreed to bolster the country's response to future emergencies by the construction of state-of-the-art storage and training facilities at nine locations in Pakistan.
NDMA Chairman Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir and Acting Humanitarian Coordinator and WFP Country Representative, Mr. Jean-Luc Siblot signed a Memorandum of Understanding today in Islamabad.
WFP plans to construct nine Humanitarian Response Facilities across the country – worth more than 1.5 billion rupees - to build national capacity to be better prepared for future emergencies.
Under the agreement, WFP will enhance the storage capacity of the NDMA and the PDMAs, enabling them to preposition around 30,000 metric tons of emergency stocks of food, non-food and medical supplies for the humanitarian community.
"I am confident that these facilities will ensure a robust, effective and timely response to possible future emergencies, " said Mr Siblot.
While WFP will build the facilities and provide the required trainings to government and humanitarian staff, the Government, will be responsible for the management and maintenance. The proposed sites for construction are Gilgit, Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta, Muzaffargarh, Hyderabad, Muzaffarabad, Sukkar and Islamabad.
The facilities will include covered storage, mobile storage units, equipped office space prayer rooms, large open areas for training and temperature-controlled spaces.
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan and the Netherlands have provided funds to WFP to support the Humanitarian Response Facilities.
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