The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju, inaugurated the first national-level training of trainers programme to sensitise various Central Ministries and Departments on utilisation of Sendai Monitor for developing action plans for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in New Delhi today. Calling it a much desired initiative, Shri Rijiju said that this workshop will "sensitise the participants and will help in building capacity of the trainers utilization of Sendai Monitor for developing Action Plans for DRR". He further said that similar exercises for State Government officials will also be held subsequently. The three-day programme starting today has been organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction-Global Education and Training Institute (UNISDR-GETI). Speaking on the occasion, UNISDR's Ms. Loretta Hieber Girardet said that as SFDRR puts special emphasis on the development of national and local strategies, this training workshop is important. She also commended India for developing one of the first national plans fully aligned with the SFDRR. India's National Disaster Management Plan was released by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in June 2016. Discussions on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, and basic concepts of DRR set the tone of the workshop. The progress of activities in the country towards the implementation of targets enshrined in the SFDRR was also be reviewed. The SFDRR is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda and identifies targets and priority actions towards reducing disaster risks and implementing development that is both resilient and sustainable. India, being a signatory to the SFDRR, is committed to work towards achieving the targets enshrined in the Framework. Interactive sessions on the application of assessment and diagnostic tools to assess the risk management plans helped participants understand the utilisation of defined indicators to monitor the progress of the Sendai targets. Senior officials of NDMA and UNISDR, and participants from nearly 12 Central Ministries including Ministry of Defence, Power, Mines, Health and Family Welfare, Housing and Urban Affairs, Road Transport & Highways, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) participated in this workshop. Various Central agencies such as National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Telecommunications (DoT) were also present.