The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) is the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
. The board operates under Ghana's
Ministry of Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministr ...
.
History
Ghana formed the National Disaster Management Organisation in 1996, backed by an act of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
(Act 927) to manage disasters and emergencies. This was after Ghana had responded to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
Declaration GAD 44/236 of 1989 declaring 1990 to 1999 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
NADMO is part of the Ghana Ministry of Interior. It has a Board of Directors selected from, the Ministries of Health, Finance, Social Welfare, Interior, Information, National Mobilization Programme, Ghana Armed Forces, and
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...
s (NGOs), among others. The first Board was chaired by, Brig. (Rtd.) Dr. G. K. Deh, Director of Medical Services (DMS), Ghana Armed Forces
Prior to the formation of NADMO, the National Mobilization Programme—set up after the 1982–1983 crises of drought, bushfires, famine, and the deportation of 1.2 million Ghanaians from
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...
—served as the implementing agency of the Disaster Relief Committee. After the formation, Kofi Portuphy, a member of the Relief Committee who had been instrumental in coordinating the drafting of the Act, became the first National Coordinator of NADMO.
Below is a table of all the Director Generals of NADMO:
Functions
NADMO performs specific functions which are all aimed at ensuring that in times of emergency, the government is ready to support relief efforts. These functions are:
#Rehabilitation services for victims of disasters
#
Mobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories an ...
of people at various levels of society to support governmental programmes
#Ensuring the preparedness of the country in the management of disasters
#Coordinating the activities of various governmental and non-governmental agencies in the management of disasters.
The organization's mandate includes response to
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s,
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
s and rainstorms, and market fires.
Presence
The mandate of NADMO stipulates that it offers relief support in times of emergencies in any location of the country. As such, the organization has structured its offices on the national, regional, district and zonal levels.
Challenges
A major challenge that NADMO faces is lack of adequate resources to function effectively. This challenge was highlighted in March 2011, when the arrival of 16,700 Ghanaian returnees from
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Su ...
and 7,000 returnees from
Cote d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
overstretched the board's resources. During such periods, appeals are sent out to the donor community for aid in the form of food, medicine, clothing, tents, mattresses, and other materiel to enable NADMO to provide basic necessities to those in need.
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (; ; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) since 2010. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)Laurent Gbagbo
Koudou Laurent Gbagbo , FPI website . ( Ivorians fled to neighbouring countries, including Ghana. It was announced in March 2011 that NADMO would establish five
refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced pe ...
s in the regions that shared a border with the Cote d'Ivoire to aid these refugees. NADMO received support from other agencies such as the Ghana Refugee Board, the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
Secretariat,
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
,
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid t ...
, UN Population Fund, and other NGOs for the provision of humanitarian services to potential asylum seekers.
See also
*
Ministry of Interior (Ghana)
The Ministry of the Interior is a ministry of the government of Ghana.
About the Ministry
The Ministry is headed by the Minister of Interior, who is appointed by the President of Ghana and is approved by the Ghana Parliament after a vetting pr ...
*
Anita De Sosoo
Anita De Sosoo is a Ghanaian politician and the National Women's Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former member of the National Disaster Management Organization. Anita De Sosoo gained popularity when as a panelist on Ad ...