On behalf of the staff of the National Disaster Management Centre, I would like to welcome you and thank you all for visiting the website of the National Disaster Management Centre.

The website was primarily developed to share information and available resources that are needed by vulnerable communities in order to better prepare for disasters in the future.

Disaster Risk Management is essentially two sides of a coin – both sides need to be viewed together. In the past, we have been good responders to disasters and emergencies. People waited for things to happen before they responded. Modern day best practice in disaster risk management requires a more proactive approach with a focus on Preparedness and Mitigation.

Studies around the world are showing Preparedness pays. The studies show that for every kina spent on disaster preparation can save thousands of kina  in response effort.

For Papua New Guinea, while it is important to maintain high response capabilities, it is also important that we invest also in preparedness and mitigation. PNG’s volatile environment makes PNG citizens vulnerable to many hazards such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, cyclones, floods, landslide, agricultural pests and diseases and many more. Our environment therefore presents us with many risks. Disaster Risk Management therefore should be an essential part of decision making in the planning processes. The emerging field of Disaster Risk Management is one area that needs more emphasis in this country.  Proper disaster risk management is inherently exercised in managing risks under conditions of high levels of uncertainty, stemming largely from inadequate information and a limited capacity and limited knowledge about what to do for an effective response. The National Disaster Management Centre has been trying to address the latter by conducting courses and providing awareness materials of various hazards so they better prepare for them.

This website was develop purposely to share information and resources that will help people to better prepare for disasters and emergencies.

Thank you very much for visiting us online.

Martin Mose
Acting Director
National Disaster Centre