Through its MASAR program, VNG International started supporting the Directorates of Duhok and the Governorate in their preparedness towards large-scale emergencies and crises from 2020 onwards. The program, which is co-funded by the European Union, supports the Directorates in the development of integrated plans allowing optimized disaster response. In May 2022, a team of 3 expert crisis trainers from The Netherlands conducted a coaching and refresher training mission to Duhok, Iraq.
 
The trainings focused on helping the Directorates develop their own crisis management plans. The aim of these plans is to improve their response to emergencies and crises. Additionally, the members of the Crisis Management Technical Committee (CMTC) have started to design and develop a regional crisis management plan with the support of the crisis management experts.

During the training week, the CMTC was trained by the experts in understanding the plans, applying the plans and procedures and understanding the consequences of their choices in order to learn and improve their plans and teamwork. The training was supported by actual practice with realistic crisis scenarios.

The team showed a great eagerness to learn and improve the safety of the community, its citizens and livelihoods through crisis management. The training week concluded with an official hand-over of the integrated crisis plan. In the future, the CMTC will convene on a regular basis to further establish their leadership and mandate as crisis managers. VNG International will continue to support the CMTC under MASAR’s Specific Objective 1, which focusses on improving the capacity of local governments to create community responsive plans for territories.