India floats global alliance on disaster risk reduction

NEW DELHI: In what is considered another big diplomatic initiative, the government has come up with a road map to establish a global coalition on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and has already allocated some seed funding for it. This will be the second coalition floated by India outside the UN after the International Solar Alliance.
“The road map encompasses four verticals: risk assessment for infrastructure; improvements in standards and regulation for infrastructure sectors; role of finance in promoting disaster resilience of infrastructure; and mechanisms for supporting recovery in infrastructure,” said P K Mishra, additional principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mishra said the coalition will support research, knowledge sharing and mutual technical assistance among coalition partners along these four areas.
In January this year, New Delhi had hosted jointly with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) an international meet where representatives from at least 22 countries participated towards formation of the coalition. This was a follow up meeting after India had first proposed the formation of the coalition at the UN global conference on DRR at Cancun, Mexico last year organised by UNISDR.
India is likely to spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure in the next 10 years. Considering most of these investments will be in building critical infrastructure in sectors like roads, hospitals, schools, power and telecommunication, the government is giving emphasis on knowledge sharing and mainstreaming DRR activities in all developmental work.
“The coalition will focus specifically on disaster resilience of major infrastructure. Recent episodes of damage to major infrastructure have highlighted the importance of this area of work. We need to work with other countries,” Mishra said.
The coalition will cater to the needs of both developed and developing countries, he said, adding developing countries are in a phase of rapid growth in infrastructure building and developed countries need to replace their ageing infrastructure. “We are in discussions with a number of nations, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, and other international organisations to shape the coalition,” Mishra said.
At the New Delhi meet in January, multilateral agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, New Development Bank, besides Japan, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan and the Netherlands had participated to give shape to the coalition.
India last year had launched a south Asia satellite to help countries in the subcontinent with a real time relay of early warning and risk assessment from impending disasters. The satellite will set up latest communication systems and carry out rescue operations and minimise disaster deaths.