India: Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction - moving faster from policy to practice

Press Release

Workshop on Disastser Reduction begins

The first Partnership Development Workshop under the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) South-South Cooperation Programme began here today. The three day workshop is being hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the World Bank. GFDRR South-South Cooperation Programme is a major initiative to facilitate collaboration among low and middle income countries to mainstream disaster risk reduction and recovery into the development planning and programming. The workshop aims at sharing of experience and knowledge, and establishing collaboration among governments, institutions, networks and communities.

Inaugurating the workshop, the Secretary (Border Management), Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Jarnail Singh, said that the Government is in the process of finalising a national policy on Disaster Management in consultation with various stake holders. He informed the gathering that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has commenced preparation of detailed project reports to implement national level mitigation projects to reduce the risk of cyclone, earthquake and flood. He appreciated the initiative of GFDRR in launching South-South Cooperation Programme to encourage inter-country collaboration and partnership arrangements and said that India would like to be actively associated with this initiative. Shri Jarnail Singh highlighted some initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to address the issue of disaster risk reduction. These include enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, establishment of the National Institute of Disaster Management, creation of the National Disaster Response Force, constitution of the National Disaster Response Fund, establishment of the National Tsunami Early Warning System and release of guidelines by NDMA for management of earthquake, cyclone, floods, landslide, chemical disasters, biological disasters and medical preparedness.

The workshop is being attended by participants from around 24 countries across the world. More than 50 Disaster Risk Reduction experts and practitioners are participating in the workshop. Senior officials of the Home Ministry, representatives from the World Bank, UNISDR and UNDP are also participating in and facilitating the various sessions of the workshop.

OK/KKA