New Delhi: The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) organised a workshop on “Risk Governance & Investing in Resilience” here today. This was the third and the last in the series of Curtain Raiser Events to the upcoming Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016.
India will host the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) from November 3-5, 2016 in New Delhi. This will be the first major inter-governmental event after the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) held in Sendai, Japan, last year that adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR).
Addressing the workshop, Union Home Secretary Shri Rajiv Mehrishi emphasised that architects and builders, including insurance companies, should follow appropriate norms and procedure to help the home owners build disaster resilient houses.
The event saw the participation of prominent speakers from across the country who deliberated on the issues related to Risk Governance and Investing in resilience. The major themes on the agenda were: 1). Ten Years of Implementation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005; 2). Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction; 3). Financing Disaster Risk Reduction, Response and Recovery; 4). Risk Financing; and 5). Regulating the Built Environment.
Prof. C.V.R. Murthy of IIT Jodhpur said that there is a dire need of competence building, which is a function of Knowledge, Skill and Attitude.
Shri Nagesh Singh, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Rural Development, spoke about how improving the skill of MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) workers to construct disaster resilient structures can be a perfect example of mainstreaming DRR by integrating it into national programmes.
Lt. Gen N.C. Marwah (Retd.), Member, NDMA, said that we need to have a strategy for mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction; it is not just important to build capacities of on-ground workers but also that of certifying agencies.
Earlier in the event, Shri Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA, set the agenda of the event and said that while India is making serious efforts towards Disaster Management, understanding and managing the risk is still in its early stages and there is a long way to go.
The recurring theme of the event was “People’s lives matter!”
Approximately 100 researchers, experts and practitioners from fields such as architecture, engineering, insurance, public finance and planning, environmental studies, social studies, and communications participated in the event.
In the run up to the AMCDRR 2016, a series of Curtain Raiser events were organised. These events were anchored by leading educational and training institutions: School of Planning and Architecture (22nd October), Indian Institute of Technology (26th October) and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (27th October) in Delhi.
The main purpose of the curtain raiser events was to take stock of initiatives in the field of disaster risk reduction that are currently underway in the country, reflect on the road ahead for the implementation of Sendai priorities, and to foster a broader engagement on SFDRR by reaching out to wider audiences including the student community, academics and professional associations among others.
