Uganda Moves to Establish Situation Room for Disaster Early Warning, Response

What the report says

Uganda is preparing to set up a national Situation Room for disaster early warning and response at the National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre (NECOC) under the Office of the Prime Minister. According to Nile Post, the facility is intended to bring together information from several sectors to improve hazard monitoring, information sharing and coordination during emergencies.

The plan is being advanced through a partnership involving the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (IGAD-CPAC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Alex Kakooza, met a delegation from both organisations on Thursday to discuss how the facility will be established and made operational. IGAD-CPAC said it had secured a grant from UNDRR to support the initiative.

The proposed system is expected to combine data from meteorology, agriculture, health, water, environment and other sectors, giving government agencies a more complete picture of emerging risks. Officials said the goal is not only to generate alerts, but also to ensure warnings are shared and acted on in time by authorities and communities exposed to hazards.

Nile Post reported that the initiative is part of broader efforts to strengthen disaster preparedness in a country frequently affected by floods, droughts and landslides. Once operational, the Situation Room is expected to support real-time monitoring, faster coordination and improved disaster response, with the government, IGAD-CPAC and UNDRR now moving into the implementation phase.