New Delhi: Shri PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister has said that “Building Local Resilience in a Changing Climate” as It responds to the need for localizing disaster risk management at a time when disaster risks are not only increasing but new patterns of risks are emerging. Shri Mishra referred to the Prime Minister’s 10-Point Agenda that emphasizes the need for building local capacities and initiatives, especially women’s leadership in disaster risk management. Learning from the proceedings of the sessions will go into the implementation of the Prime Minister’s ten-point agenda and the Sendai Framework.
Mr. Mishara was addressing the Valedictory program of the 3rd Session of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, here today. Shri Mishra who has attended all three sessions of NPDRR since 2013, expressed happiness about the enlarged scope of conversation and The breadth and depth of the discussions. In its Pan India presence, The event is turning disaster risk reduction into a ‘Jan Andolan’ as envisaged by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
He suggested two overarching themes for the stakeholders to pursue. First, relates to professionalizing the disaster risk management setup at the State and district levels, and, second, developing programs and interventions which are responsive to the needs of the people.The states have adequate resources and they will be supported by NDMA, NIDM, and NDRF in a coordinated manner
All aspects of disaster management functions at all levels – national, state, and district — need to be supported by professionally trained staff, a fit-for-purpose structure, administrative infrastructure, modern workspace, and necessary facilities such as Emergency Operations Centers.” This professionalization needs to cover SDMSs, and DDMAs both. He said disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation need to be professionalized on the lines of the professionalization of disaster response that happened with the arrival of NDRF and SDRF. States, , he added.
The Principal Secretary asked NDMA to consider developing inter-sectoral programmes as the appropriate context for advancing the application of disaster management as mainstreaming of disaster risk management in development is not possible until we know how to apply our regular programmes for risk reduction. He also highlighted the need of prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable.
He expressed satisfaction with the availability of resources for both the tasks of professionalization and programme development. New technologies, he continued, can make disaster management tools and practices more effective in events like cyclones, disaster resilient infrastructure. He said that the next three years are very critical, and we must pursue this with single minded focus.
The Principal Secretary concluded by alerting the stakeholders of slow progress on Sendai Framework, whose eighth anniversary falls in one week. “More than half of this 15-year Framework’s time has passed and the world is way off track from achieving the Sendai targets. We must rededicate ourselves to creating a more effective, more responsive system of disaster risk management to work towards a safer country and safer world with more resilient communities”, he added.