Emergency services groups are looking to provide better training for workers so to provide career pathways for responders to disasters.
A former chief of Fiji's National Fire Authority and a disaster risk consultant, Mark Reid, says the disaster and climate change managers meeting this week in Fiji are hearing about the need to create a Competency Framework for disaster offices, which will provide levels of training for staff.
He says some people enter the field of disaster management from the public service, but there's no reason they can't be trained up through the emergency services field, and the framework could offer wider career options for Pacific islanders.
"They've never had any, you know a lot of guidance about the roles and responsibilities and also the competencies and qualifications that those people should have, so it's really probably aligning ourselves into getting the region's disaster managers to have qualifications that are recognised within the region. Make the job more professional."
A disaster risk consultant, Mark Reid.
