Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) [http://www.dmb.gov.bd]

DMB is a dynamic professional unit at national level to perform specialist support functions working in close collaboration with District and Thana –level authorities, and the concerned line ministries under the overall authority of high –level inter-ministerial committee (IMDMCC). It is a technical arm to the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFDM) to overview and co-ordinate all activities related to disaster management from national down to the grass-root level.
 

Roles and Responsibilities of DMB

The main role of the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) is to provide support to disaster management decision makers, planners and practitioners at all levels in Bangladesh by acting as
a small dynamic professional unit at a national level to perform specialist functions in the field of disaster preparedness, local level disaster action and contingency planning, awareness training, facilitating improved information collection

• During Normal Time

• During an Emergency

• During Post-Disaster Recovery

During Normal Time

• Developing a National Disaster Action Plan, and associated practical guidelines for those responsible for its implementation;
• Helping line ministries and agencies to develop and test their own contingency/action plans;
• Helping district- and thana-level authorities to develop and test their own disaster preparedness plans;
• Working with local authorities, BDRCS/CPP, NGOs and others to help union councils and village communities in high-risk areas to develop their own contingency plans and increase their own coping capacity.
• Collaborating with existing training institutes, training materials development units, and NGOs already engaged in relevant training activities, to co-ordinate and promote the production of curricula and relevant training materials for various target groups.
• Collaborating with line agencies, local authorities, existing training institutes, and relevant NGOs, in planning organizing training for a wide variety of government personnel, elected officials and others;
• Establishing facilities, information systems operating procedures, and telecommunications systems, for a national emergency operations centre (EOC) control room, for immediate use when an emergency arises;
• Establishing arrangements for the mobilization of additional personnel for the EOC and to assist local authorities in the field, when required;
• Providing a documentation and information services on disaster management for line agencies and others;
• Working with the Planning Commission and concerned line agencies to increase awareness of disaster risks and ensure that such risks, and possibilities to reduce them, are considered and appropriate measures incorporated in development planning.;
• Monitoring and reporting to the Government/Parliament on the risks faced, the vulnerability of people and economic assets to known hazards, the status of preparedness in the country and any delays/bottlenecks in the implementation of disaster prevention/preparedness programmes and project.

During an Emergency

• Ensuring the effective dissemination of appropriate warnings, of flood, cyclones (through collaboration with BMD, BWDB, CPP, Radio, TV, and authorities in particular).
• Activating and operating the national EOC (control room), receiving, analyzing, storing, incoming information, arranging rapid reconnaissance and assess mission, where needed.
• Providing secretarial services and expert advice to the National Disaster Management Council (NDMC) and Inter-ministerial Disaster Management Co-ordination Committee (IMDMCC).
• Providing information to and liaising with ERD concerning requirement international assistance, and with Ministry of Information.
• During Post-Disaster Recovery
• Co-operating with the Planning Commission and line agencies, as required in compiling data on reconstruction requirements and in co-ordinating the preparedness of an integrated reconstruction programme;
• Ensuring that risk reduction measures are built into all reconstruction programmes as much as possible;
• Undertaking a final evaluation, or at least a "post mortem", on the over all operation, drawing lessons and feeding them back to the IMDMCC training activities and up-dated guidelines.