Union Home Secretary, Rajiv Mehrishi on Monday chaired a video conference with State Chief Secretaries in connection with the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016, to be held in New Delhi from 3rd to 5th November. Chief Secretary J&K, B R Sharma also participated in the meeting.The international conference is being organized by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India in collaboration with United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The Ministers and heads of delegations of as many as 61 countries will be participating in the conference to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 3rd November.Union Home Secretary informed that invitation to participate in the conference has been extended to Chief Minister’s of State’s, officers from civil and police administration and representatives of various local level government bodies concerned with disaster management. State Governments have also been offered space in the conference for showcasing their efforts towards disaster management, he said. He called upon the States to actively participate in the conference and exchange experiences on successful practices and innovative approaches in reducing and managing disaster risk.Established in 2005, the AMCDRR is a biennial conference jointly organized by different Asian countries and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The AMCDRR serves as a forum for stakeholders to take a shared responsibility and make actionable commitments towards implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the Asia region.So far, countries in Asia in collaboration with UNISDR, have organized six AMCDRR conferences. The previous hosts were China (Beijing, 2005); India (New Delhi, 2007); Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, 2008); South Korea (Incheon, 2010); Indonesia (Yogyakarta, 2012); and Thailand (Bangkok, 2014).After the advent of the Sendai Framework adopted by representatives of 187 countries in March 2015, for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030' this will be the first Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction, hosted by India. The intended outcome of the conference will be to adopt an‘Asian Regional Plan for Implementation of the Sendai Framework’.The objective will be to transform the commitment of governments and stakeholders made in Sendai (Japan) during the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) into national and local action and setting the direction to accelerate regional implementation and monitoring of the Sendai Framework.
The four priority areas include i) Understanding disaster risk; ii) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; iii) Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and iv) Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to ‘build back better’ in recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.