New Delhi: The 2nd Meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) Ministers for Disaster Management will be held in Udaipur, Rajasthan on August 22-23, 2016. The two-day meeting will focus on two distinct but inter-related themes: a) Flood Risk Management; and b) Forecasting of Extreme Weather Events in the context of Changing Climate. It is a follow up of the 1st meeting of the BRICS Ministers for Disaster Management convened by the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg on April 19-20, 2016.
Recognizing the common challenge posed by natural and man-made disasters, BRICS countries have identified Disaster Management as an important area of collaboration. The Ufa Declaration signed by BRICS Nations at the 7th BRICS Summit on July 9, 2015 identified the need to promote cooperation in preventing and developing responses to emergency situations. The Declaration also acknowledged the fruitful discussions on natural disasters within the context of BRICS cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation. It also reiterated BRICS commitment to mitigate the negative impact of climate change. All the five BRICS countries have signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. They are also parties to the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in March, 2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015. A number of SDGs have specific targets related to Disaster Risk Management (DRM).
The country delegations to the Udaipur Meeting will be led by the Ministers of Disaster Management from the respective BRICS countries and other senior officials/ technical experts from Disaster Management Ministries/ Departments. The objectives of this meeting are:
i. To share experiences on flood risk management particularly with regards to flood risk assessment, flood forecasting, early warning and emergency response;
ii. To share experiences on current systems in each country for forecasting extreme weather events — heat and cold waves, and episodes of extreme rainfall– particularly in the context of a changing climate; and
iii. To identify opportunities for collaboration between institutions of respective BRICS countries in the area of flood risk management and extreme weather related events.
During the Ministerial Meeting in Udaipur three technical sessions with key thrust areas will be held as mentioned below:
a) Challenges for Disaster Risk Management
(i) Mainstreaming DRR in key development sectors
(ii) Capacity building at local level
(iii) Strengthening of response mechanism
b) Forecasting and early warning on floods and extreme weather events
(i) Key early warning challenges
(ii) Highlights of recent scientific and technical developments
(iii) Lessons learnt for ensuring last mile connectivity/community level action on early warning
c) Disaster risk in a changing climate
(i) Emerging disaster risks as a result of climate change
(ii) DRM practices evolving in view of emerging disaster risks in a changing climate.
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