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Strategic Roadmap for Emergency Management in Niue (2015 - 2019) – September 2015

Countries
Niue (New Zealand)
Sources
EU
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An Executive Summary by the Secretary to Government and Chairman of the National Disaster Council – Mr Richard Hipa

The Strategic Roadmap for Emergency Management (SREM) in Niue is the result of extensive consultati ons and research. This included a stakeholder workshop to look at contemporary best practi ce within the Australasian region with the view to reform the emergency management arrangements in Niue.

The SREM process allowed us, for the fi rst ti me, to sit down as group and discuss the issues that collecti vely face us as a sector rather than as individual agencies like police, fi re and government departments. Our own experiences with signifi cant events like cyclone Heta and other overseas incidents show us clearly that successful emergency management can only occur when everyone knows what to do and can work together as a single interoperable unit.

The goals that we aspire to in this roadmap include: †

  • a shared responsibility and a ‘whole of nation’ approach to emergency management; †
  • strengthening national resilience to any adverse event; and †
  • increasing the value of our emergency management sector to Niue.

We plan to do this by implementing programs and reforms that will produce: †

  • integrated and interoperable emergency management agencies; †
  • streamlined governance and structures; †
  • increased capability within all levels of our society; and †
  • stronger engagement between communities, government and agencies.

Now embedded into our roadmap’s principles and programs is an important point – good emergency management and outcomes are not achieved by just enacti ng legislati on, writi ng operati ng procedures and buying resources and equipment. While these things are key, they are nowhere as important as the human aspect of relati onships, leadership, trust and the ability to work together using common procedures.
This strategic roadmap outlines strategies that will address these issues by recommending signifi cant reforms to the way we are currently providing services.