'Globalisation of strategies necessary for disaster risk reduction'

India has stressed the need for "globalisation of strategies" for disaster risk reduction (DRR) at the world's foremost gathering on reducing disaster risk and building the resilience of communities and nations.

Addressing the five-day Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) summit held in Cancun, Mexico, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said national and local governments should have their own budget to fight the menace, a Home Ministry statement said here on Friday.

"The strategies of the national and local governments should be in alignment, integrated, supportive and supplementary for DRR. What we need is globalisation of strategies... The national and local governments should have their own budgets for DRR," the Minister said.

"But the additional support should be from national governments for risk reduction," said Rijiju.

"This mitigation fund should be based on a formula based on risk and population and also should be based on a system to give incentives to the good work done by the local governments and communities."

Rijiju co-chaired a plenary session on "National and Local Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies" along with Paraguay's Minister for National Emergency Secretariat Joaquin Roa and Mayor of Tlalnepantla, Mexico, Denisse Ugalde Alegría at Cancun, in Mexico, on Thursday.

The Minister was attending a five-day Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) summit held in Cancun between May 22 and 26.

Rijiju advocated for the capacity-building of institutions and communities at local level, saying "decentralisation for DRR cannot be successful unless adequate capacity is built at the local level".

For this, he suggested that the national government should support capacity-building through networking of institutions, technical support, documenting and sharing best practices and upscaling successful projects at local level.

A special round table meeting was convened by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed to exchange views on coherence between sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Sendai framework and Paris agreement on climate change.

Representing India at the meeting, Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra emphasised that disaster resilient infrastructure is a strategic entry point which will help us not only achieving the targets enshrined in the Sendai framework but also help in achieving SDGs and implement the Paris agreement.

"India emphasised that there is a need to bring greater focus in investing at the local level. The meeting was also attended by the leaders of 13 countries,"

The Indian delegation, led by Rijiju, held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Global Platform with delegations of Mongolia, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and Japan, the Home Ministry statement said, adding that these countries showed their willingness to work closely with India and to share mutual experience and expertise in various areas of DRR.

--IANS

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