Emergency Telecommunications are a key enabler for disaster risk reduction and management.

The timely flow of critical information is essential in saving lives. It requires robust coordination and strategic collaboration to ensure last-mile connectivity.

ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau in collaboration with UNICEF, the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), and Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC), recently held a Train-the-Trainer session with Emergency Telecommunications Table-Top Simulation exercises to strengthen disaster preparedness across the four agencies and build capacities for a more coordinated disaster-response.

The session was held in Valencia, Spain, and was attended by an expert group of staff from these agencies who took part in the simulation exercises designed to train them to handle emergency situations. These immersive exercises also provided an opportunity to enhance coordination across agencies, analyze existing capacities and resources among the stakeholders, and review strategies focused on digital technologies to manage disaster scenarios effectively.

Ms Ria Sen, who attended the session as the Global Preparedness Officer, ETC, World Food Programme, said: “This exercise was a first-of-its kind deep interagency collaboration between ITU, the Emergency Telecoms Cluster, GSMA and UNICEF in developing desk-based SIMEXs (simulation exercises) and related training skills. What makes it particularly invaluable is that agencies now have more ready capacity…(and will also run) the training in future to build capacities of other emergency telecommunications stakeholders.”

As a result of this session, a group of inter-agency experts from ITU, GSMA, ETC and UNICEF are now trained to design, organize, and conduct simulation exercises to further train larger groups of experts at the national, regional, and local levels to manage real-life emergency situations. Furthermore, these table-top simulation exercises will help economies revise their national policies and regulatory frameworks to ensure disaster preparedness with financial resources, capacities, technologies, and telecommunication systems in place.

This is an ITU Development #DigitalImpactUnlocked story