New Delhi: Following is the text of Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh’s address during the Closing Ceremony of Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016, here today:
“Three days of an eventful and, I hope, fruitful journey has come to an end today. I thank the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India for his dynamic leadership in the successful organization of this Conference. We should specially take note of the suggestion and announcements made by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, especially the following :
(i) India’s offer to build a coalition or centre for promoting disaster resilient infrastructure.
(ii) India’s offer to work with partner agencies and multilateral agencies to establish a facility for technical support to post-disaster construction of houses. I hope India’s contribution of US 1 million dollars will be used as seed money towards this.
(iii) India’s offer to make its space capabilities available to any country for the purpose of disaster risk management.
(iv) Focus on the greater involvement of women in both disaster risk management and post-disaster management.
(v) Consolidating traditional practices of risk reduction, evolved and perfected over centuries.
We are also fully committed to working to fulfil the 10-point agenda outlines by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
As you are all aware, the Sendai Framework focuses on preventing new disaster risks, reducing existing disaster risks and strengthening disaster resilience. It also calls for various measures to prevent and reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability, and increase preparedness for recovery. This requires a shift from stand-alone disaster management to a more holistic risk resilient development practice supported by regional and international cooperation. By hosting the First Regional Platform, this Asian Ministerial Conference of 2016, India has underlined its commitment to such cooperation.
This Conference has provided us a platform not only to share our experiences and best practices but also arriving at a consensus roadmap to implement the Sendai Framework in our region. Six Technical Sessions based on the priorities of the Sendai Framework were organized during the Conference. During Thematic Sessions issues of “Promoting Educational Continuity and Resilience of Children”, “Application of Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction” and “Strategies and Actions for Build Back Better” were discussed. The first major outcome is the Asia Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The other major outcome is the New Delhi Declaration, which commits use of enhancing regional cooperation. This includes strengthening the role of Inter-governmental Organizations for the coherent implementation of the Sendai Framework, as also the broader 2030 sustainable development agenda, and of fostering innovative partnerships.
Having made a good beginning, we should now ensure that our nations and communities are enabled:
(i) in devising strategies on knowledge sharing, risk information system development and assessment of potential risks to make preparatory movements in advance;
(ii) analyzing community resilience and promoting hazard safe sectoral development, with greater use of reliable technologies;
(iii) to make risk-informed decisions to prevent and reduce future hazards;
(iv) put in place methods of assessing the potential impacts of disasters on national, local economies, communities and the business sector;
(v) recognize the perils of growing and often un-planned urbanization induced by the path of economic development that we have adopted;
(vi) focus on mainstreaming the marginalized sections, who are most vulnerable and suffer irreparable losses in natural or man-made disasters;
(vii) sharing the knowledge base and advance technologies especially with the under developed economies; and enable investments in multi-hazard early warning systems;
To conclude, I would like to express my sincere thanks to UNISDR for organizing this Conference in India. I would also like to congratulate all our Teams, Ministers, Officials, agencies from my own Ministry and our sister Ministries, Officials and Staff of National Disaster Management Authority, Delhi Police, National Disaster Response Force and National Institute of Disaster Management, NDMC, Delhi Fire Service and the Defence Exhibition Organization, who worked assiduously to make this conference a grand success. My heartfelt thanks to all the participants for joining their hands together towards making the Asian Region disaster resilient. I hope your stay in India was comfortable, and you will take time off to experience the wondrous experience that multi-cultural India is.”
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