Corporate Disaster Resource Network
(CDRN) Launched to invite cross sector partnerships for
Disasters
For the first time in India, Corporates can know how specifically they can help disaster struck people with the CDRN.
November
7, 2008: The Corporate Disaster Resource Network (CDRN) was launched by
J K Sinha, Member, NDMA. The CDRN is an initiative by Aidmatrix and
Civil Society Organisations partners (CSO) who launched this at a
conference on Combating Climate Change for Disaster Reduction and
Sustainable Business with Climate Friendly Private Sector Initiatives,
in New Delhi. Also present for the launch were Vinod Menon, Member
National Disaster Management Association, Governor Scott McCallum, CEO
Aidmatrix and Soumitra Ghosh, President CSO Partners.
CDRN, a
logistics, administrative and financial coordination tool as part of
the National Disaster Management Authority, Corporate Task Force, is an
initiative by Aidmatrix and CSO Partners that helps Corporates know how
they can help disaster struck people by providing real time information
on products and services needed during emergencies.
The past
learnings from the Tusnami and the recent floods of Bihar, highlight
the valuable need for an information system for companies to leverage
highlighted Vinod Menon, Member, NDMA.
Addressing the delegates
after the launch, J. K. Sinha said, "In the recent past there has been
an increase in the frequency at which disaster has struck people all
across the world. And in the absence of a system that can help in
forecasting or prevent man and material loss, CDRN would help in
building an effective channel through which resources could be directed
during times of need, with the help of Public Private Partnership
(PPP)."
It is common knowledge today that an increasing number
of business enterprises are laying more and more emphasis on their role
as a corporate citizen. And this concept gains even more significance
during times of disaster, providing business houses with an opportunity
to highlight supplies for local governments and also to give back to
the society through their business.
"CDRN acts as a platform
where companies are shown the specific needs and they can actually
choose the manner in which they can help. Relief agencies that are
working in the disaster struck areas , update the system with real time
demands that arise during times of crisis. Corporates who are willing
to donate during these times can thus know how they can help by
donating what is actually needed. This system was put to use during
Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustavo that had hit the US shores recently
and in India it can help in providing much needed help on time", said
Governor Scott James McCallum, CEO Aidmatrix.
Virinder Sharma
from DFID emphasised on the climate change adaptation and disaster risk
reduction points where there is a need to address incentives,
institutions and instruments. He further highlighted the challenges
that constrain the convergence agenda to work towards regional models
and resilient communities.
CDRN can be accessed by clicking here http://cdrn.aidmatrix.org
About NDMA
The
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), GOI is working to build
a safer and disaster resilient India by developing a holistic,
pro-active, multi-disaster and technology-driven strategy for disaster
management through collective efforts of all Government Agencies and
Non-Governmental Organisations.
About Aidmatrix
Aidmatrix is
a nonprofit organisation which builds and operates powerful technology
hubs that support diverse stakeholder groups in their efforts to work
together to solve the world's most challenging humanitarian needs. More
than 35,000 leading corporate, nonprofit and government partners
leverage our solutions to mobilize more than $1.8 billion in aid
annually, worldwide. The donated goods, money and services have
impacted the lives of more than 65 million people. (shouldn't we say
"have impacted…")
About CSO Partners
CSO Partners is a
non-profit that is committed to mobilizing resources and providing
appropriate support services for Civil Society Organizations. Through
an extended base of consortium partners specialized in relevant
services, CSO Partners develop appropriate program opportunities for
various contributors who include government‚ corporate bodies and
individuals to engage with civil society organization in a process of
social change that benefits all stakeholders. It has established a
support partners network in varied areas ranging from donor services‚
volunteering, social investment services‚ financial management‚
governance‚ documentation‚ advocacy and communications.
- End -
About NDMA
The
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), GOIis working to build a
safer and disaster resilient India by developing a holistic,
pro-active, multi-disaster and technology-driven strategy for disaster
management through collective efforts of all Government Agencies and
Non-Governmental Organisations.
About Aidmatrix
Aidmatrix
is nonprofit organisationwhich builds and operates powerful technology
hubs that support diverse stakeholder groups in their efforts to work
together to solve the world's most challenging humanitarian crises.
More than 35,000 leading corporate, nonprofit and government partners
leverage our solutions to mobilize more than $1.8 billion in aid
annually, worldwide. The donated goods, money and services impact the
lives of more than 65 million people.
About CSO Partners
CSO
Partners is a non-profit organization that is committed to mobilizing
contributions -both human and financial - and providing appropriate
support services for civil society organizations. Through an extended
base of consortium partners specialized in relevant services, CSO
Partners develop appropriate program opportunities for various
contributors who include government‚ corporate bodies and individuals
to engage with civil society organization in a process of social change
that benefits all stakeholders. It has established a support partners
network to facilitate the contributors' engagement in social
initiatives through programs rangingfrom strategic CSR or
sustainability program, donor service‚ volunteering, social investment
services‚ financial management‚ governance‚ documentation‚ advocacy and
communications etc.
www.csopartners.org.in
Launch of Corporate Disaster Resource Network
(CDRN)
& International Conference on "Combating
Climate Change for Disaster Reduction & Sustainable Business with Climate
Friendly Private Sector Initiatives"
7 November 2008, New Delhi, India
UNDER THE AUSPICES
OF
CORPORATE TASK
FORCE
NATIONAL DISASTER
MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, GOI, INDIA
AN INITIATIVE BY
& 
The Corporate Disaster
Resource Network (CDRN) launched under the auspices of the National Disaster
Management Authority - Corporate Task Force by
Honourable Member Shri J.K Sinha, is a logistics,
administrative and financial coordination tool to help Relief and Response
Agencies and Local Governments to access real time information on products and
services required for emergency humanitarian relief. CDRN provides companies an
opportunity to provide their products and services real time for Relief and
Response to facilitate Rapid Decision making and access to information of needs
for Emergencies. Thus it is a significant step towards ushering an era of
sustainable, timely, seamless and importantly on-going continuous emergency
relief coordination, with emphasis upon relief provision and successful
rehabilitation. In India,
particularly taking into account incidents of increasing disasters, whether
tsunamis, floods, cyclones, or earthquakes, the CDRN marks a concerted movement
of like-minded corporate bodies, institutions/organizations and individuals
towards creating an improved sustainable humanitarian relief delivery network.
The Conference on Supply Chain Management for
Disaster Management 2007, and the Second International Conference on Public Private
Partnership for Disaster Management, April 2008 organized by Aidmatrix under the auspices of National Disaster
Management Authority, Government of India, paved the foundation and
preparedness towards the launch of Corporate Disaster Resource Network in
November 2008. The two conferences laid focus upon the twin objectives of "risk
reduction" ensuring that minimum risk and damage is ensued whilst dealing with
disasters and to "evolve public-private partnerships in dealing with disaster
management".
The relationship between disaster management and climate change is increasingly
reflected in the rising population, the scramble for resources, abject poverty
and the lack of access to clean drinking water, standard quality of life and so
on. Consequently, as seen issues of climate change also loom large over the
world. The situation is alarmingly threatening if no immediate action is taken
up to combat climate change. This necessity
to combat climate change has provided the possibilities and the need to learn
and engage with similar organizations/institutions/individuals working on
climate change, on both mid and long-term goals and strategies, for
sector-based approaches to improve regional models for resilient communities,
energy security, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and minimize carbon
footprint for environmental emergencies.
Hence,
in view of the larger consideration the conference on "Combating
Climate Change for Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Business with
Climate-Friendly Private-Sector Initiatives" attempts to bring together
expert knowledge, guidance and compassionate belief.
The Conference supported by the National Disaster
Management Authorities, Government of India and CSO Partners and SAP
Technologies, Accenture, Centre for Environment Education (CEE), International
Agencies of Emergency Managers (IAEM), Sphere India, World Vision and
Thomex encouraged and provided technical & knowledge support to make the
launch of CDRN and the international conference both, a meaningful and
successful initiative. Further, the
Conference saw the participation of representatives of various Private
Companies, Public Sector Units (PSU), representatives of Government,
International Agencies, non-governmental organisations and various stakeholders
from all over India.
The mounting ferocity of disaster, whether
natural or man made has encouraged the need to develop innovative techniques to
deal with disaster management. However disaster management is not merely
restricted to acting at the time of disaster but also upon disaster
preparedness, effective response and mitigation. Emphasis is placed upon a
collaborative public-private movement to coordinate an efficient and
sustainable response to disasters and humanitarian relief. Thus, disaster
relief is based upon sharing of
information, ideas and best practices, dissemination of technology and
technical expertise and of financial and human resources between the public
sector, whether state, regional bodies or local authorities and the private
entities like civil society representatives, corporate bodies and most
importantly the communities. It is with this belief in channeling the need for
a coordinated timely response towards disaster that the Corporate Disaster
Resource Network is initiated as a collaborative effort between the corporate
bodies, civil society partners and state authorities.
With this aim to provide a common platform for
efficient disaster response and combating climate change the Conference laid
emphasis on three thematic issues:
- Launch of Corporate Disaster Resource
Network (CDRN) & Cross Sector Partnership for Disaster Management,
- Combating Climate Change for Regional Models
& Resilient Communities,
- Call for Action - "Join Hands Go Green" by
the Students of Kamala Nehru College,
Delhi University.
Governor
Scott McCallum - CEO, Aidmatrix
Foundation delivering the inaugural speech noted that Hurricane Katrina destroyed the belief
that efficient, timely, coordinated response to disaster was natural to the United States of America.
Rather, as shown humanitarian relief to the hurricane struck States was held
captive by many factors and constraints. Enquiring, "What
can we learn from these to apply to the future?" Governor Scott
McCallum emphatically emphasizes upon the need to institutionalize a
coordinated collaborative disaster response network. In this attempt the
Corporate Disaster Resource Network is one such attempt to provide to the
people the right aid at the right time. The Network is to act as a tool for
resource collaboration, sharing of ideas and workload to build stronger
resilient societies.
Addressing the inauguration session, with the key
note address, Prof. Vinod Menon, Honourable Member - National Disaster Management
Authority, stated that the
CDRN is an attempt to build an inventory of resources and information to be
available in the public domain to civil society organizations, corporate,
individuals, for disaster preparedness by providing the right information at
the right time for policy makers and corporate/organizational bodies executing
decisions impacting the lives of thousand of people. CDRN is therefore to act
as a starting point - empowered with product data based, technical know how,
professional expertise - to be enriched with GPS solutions for tracking
inventory management. Towards this end, Prof. Menon stated that the National
Disaster Management Authority welcomed suggestions and comments on how to efficiently
engage and enable possible identification of products, of
companies/organizations and data compilation in terms of authenticity and
genuineness. Here emphasis was laid upon preparing a first set of data
preferably before the next monsoon season, to ensure that humanitarian response
was swift, efficient and timely. Such preparedness would help the National
Disaster Management Authority to improve humanitarian response and focus upon
disaster mitigation.
Prof. Menon recognizing the nature of humanitarian
relief works undertaken by Aidmatrix in the United States and worldwide
acknowledged that Aidmatrix is changing and redefining the rules of the game in
terms of mobilizing humanitarian aid and negotiating with national government,
provincial government and regional platforms. Prof. Menon further maintained
that the support and encouragement of Aidmatrix and its function is best
demonstrated when Secretary Michael Chertoff, Department of
Homeland Security, United
States of America on international television proclaimed
that the "Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is entering the 21st
Century with Aidmatrix solution" hour before a hurricane was hitting the USA coasts.
Soumitra Ghosh, President, CSO Partners, delivering the special address, sighted the
example of the lack of coordination in humanitarian relief provision during the
Kosi floods, said that the Corporate Disaster Resource Network is a platform to
engage, communicate and share information for coordinated humanitarian relief
work. He commented that the CDRN is a platform to not only engage in product or
its availability but also on how to engage in prevention, mitigation and
post-disaster response. In this, emphasis was to be laid upon multi-stakeholder
participation, whether by civil society groups, corporate organizations and
individuals, as rehabilitation is not merely restricted to restoring normalcy
but is also about introducing change for greater improved growth and
sustainable development. Thus, the onus of building societies is to be equally
borne by the private sector and not merely entrusted and restricted to the
public domain.
Soumitra Ghosh further noted that
multi-stakeholder partnership, particularly with focus upon civil society
participation would help make people's lives better. Here, disaster should also
be seen as an opportunity to participate, engage and build society. Focusing
upon the case of the Bihar Flood, Soumitra Ghosh notes that emphasis of
rehabilitation should be on how to engage in efforts and resources to build a
continuum of development, whether in the field of agriculture or industrial
development.
At the launch of the Corporate Disaster Resource
Network, Honourable Guest of Honour, J.K Sinha, Member, National Disaster Management
Authority noted that the
idea of CDRN is the culmination of the realization that disaster management
cannot be merely confined to disaster response but also necessitated policy
making and planning on the issues of pre-disaster preparedness and mitigation,
and response and rehabilitation. The need to place in the domain of the public,
a collaborative network focused upon disaster response is reflected in the fact
that in the National Disaster Management Authority partnership constitutes one
of the responsibilities individually entrusted to the 8 NDMA members. CDRN thus is one such collaborative
partnership between NDMA, Aidmatrix and various other corporate,
non-governmental organizations and individuals for disaster management. Importantly the CDRN is based upon values of
partnership, collaboration and is available in the public domain.
In India, the National Disaster
Management Authority is the nodal authority on disaster management. The
partnership between NDMA and the private/non-voluntary sector entails that
response to disaster will be mainstreamed towards the common goal of effective
humanitarian response. Taking the incidents arising from the recent Bihar
Flood, where the needs were varied and often accidentally mismanaged, due to
the lack of information. Thus while the Bihar Government demanded water
purification machines it was later realized that the needs of the different
districts/villages were different from what the State government was calling
for and importantly the water purifier machines had to be operated on
electricity, which unfortunately was not available at most of the flooded areas
and nearby villages. Immediately, then the idea of sending water purifiers was
rejected.
J.K Sinha notes that taking these factors into
account it was realized that it is imperative to institutionalize a process of
disaster preparedness with the objective of pursuing the various requirements
of relief response. The needs could be gathered through various ways- donation,
discounted prices, fixed rates. However what is required is to ensure that the
information on products, goods and services were to be in already in place for
quicker and more effective response in times of disaster. The NDMA or any other
organizations working for humanitarian relief would therefore not have to
search for information or services or goods. It is due to this lack of
co-ordination and the absence of complete information to the decision makers
that NDMA, Corporate Task Force and Aidmatrix conceived the idea of CDRN, which
is to be available to the private and public sector, and to the civil society
and communities. The National Disaster Management Authority is the guiding
force for operationalizing the Corporate Disaster Response Network. J.K. Sinha also informed that all guidelines
to be followed for CDRN will also be issued by NDMA and strict penal measures
were to be instituted, to ensure that CDRN will not be misused.
He
further highlighted that the good work done by Aidmatrix with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency in the United States. In this quest for
achieving successful disaster management he also requested corporate and other stakeholders
to join hands with the CDRN. Sincere appreciation was also shown towards CSO
Partners for encouragement and support to making the CDRN a possibility.
With
these words of, encouragement and focus, J.K Sinha launched the Corporate
Disaster Resource Network. Honourable Member NDMA, Prof. Vinod Chandra Menon,
Soumitra Ghosh President, CSO Partners, Governor Scott McCallum, CEO Aidmatrix
Foundation and Kuldip Nar, Managing Director, Aidmatrix India, were the
other dignitaries who joined for the launch.
The inaugural session was concluded with an
overview of the CDRN by Kuldip Nar, Managing Director Aidmatrix India.
Kuldip Nar maintained that the CDRN is a public driven, de mediated,
transparent mechanism equipped with a ready database of information on goods,
products, services, ideas for improved humanitarian relief work. In this
objective, all recommendations, suggestions are welcomed from different
organizations, institutions and individuals to ensure a committed CDRN
process.
SESSION I- CROSS SECTOR PARNERSHIP FOR DISASTER
MANAGEMENT
N.M. Prusty,
Chief of Party USAID- IRG while
chairing the session on Cross Sector Partnership for Disaster Management
highlighted upon the fact that independent India's priority was to ensure that
the citizens lived a life of dignity and freedom. In this respect, the aim of
cross sector partnership was to put in place a system that will help improve
the quality of life enjoyed by the people. The continuous endeavor towards
fulfilling this quest would also rests upon the need to institutionalize
possible partnerships and networks to ensure greater and improve distribution
of goods, services, resources and information. This mutual synergy or alignment
between business processes and social systems would have better impact on the
quality of live.
Working towards this objective of improving the
lives of the people, particularly the poor and the needy, Chris Rebstock, Global Food Banking Network demonstrates the
working of the Food Bank. Operating as a community owned warehouse for the
collection of durable food, whether from grocery stores, retailer, or directly
from agriculturalists and even consumers, the food bank acts both as storage
and distribution centre. However the successful functioning of the food bank,
beginning from collection, storage and redistribution depended upon an
effective network of partners, stakeholders and communities.
Chris Rebstock therefore stated that partnerships
play a critical role. Taking the examples of the varied response to disaster in
Argentina (Tucuman, 2007),
in Mexico (Tabasco, 2007) and in the United States at
the time of Hurricane Katrina (2005) he notes that the nature and kind of
partnership is also vital. Thus, in the case of Tucuman
the absence of formal partnerships between the Food Bank, the local
organization (Caritas) and the Provincial Government entailed that often
humanitarian response was duplicated and cumbersome. While in the case of the
Food Bank in the US, even in spite of the Food Bank facility shutting down in
New Orleans, similar facilities were immediately set up in 4 other places
within 72 hours and the fact that the Food Bank functioned efficiently for
almost six months was a testimony to the working of the partnership between the
Food Bank, WalMart, non-governmental organization like VOAD and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Thus, it is imperative that partnerships must
cut across all sectors and organizations and must also include partnerships
between the State agencies, non-governmental organizations and corporate
bodies.
Wing Commander
Dinesh Mathur - Honorary Secretary, Indian Red Cross Society (Delhi Branch) contends that the potential for participation by
the corporate sector in disaster management is tremendously large. The scope
for active partnerships is available not only in the field of training and
mobilizing resources but also in supplying relief provisions like durable food
items, water purifiers, makeshift toilet infrastructure and so on. Thus,
necessary coordination and networking is required amongst different
participating sectors to ensure that response to disaster is easy and
cost-effective.
Speaking in the context of the CRDN, Wing
Commander Mathur notes that an interactive process is the answer to identify
resources, such as who will give us what items at the right time and how to
dispense the item.
Franklin
Joseph, Director HEA - World Vision also
stated that strategic collaboration between different sectors and organizations
will serve the objective of improving the quality of life of the poor.
Partnership and effective collaboration ensures the sharing of ideas and
information, transfer of technology, transparent operations, effective
management and action oriented equity based approach towards humanitarian
relief delivery.
Citing the case of aid delivery through effective
partnership in the case of the Tsunami (2005), Franklin Joseph notes that close
relationship between the corporate sector, the local government at the grass
root level and the voluntary sector. With this successful experience in
partnership World Vision firmly believes partnership and collaboration will
help improve the quality of life.
Ajay Rattan -
General Manager, TATA BlueScope Steel Limited highlighted the innovative measures taken by TATA BlueScope Steel
like the introduction of durable, customized, easily transportable and
comparatively easy to erect infrastructure facilities, such as buildings for
hospitals, schools, community centre, waiting sheds and others, for immediate
shelter provision in disaster areas.
SESSION II- COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE FOR REGIONAL
MODELS & RESILIENT COMMUNITIES
The chair Virinder
Sharma, Rural Livelihoods and Environmental Adviser DFID-India, for the
session on Combating Climate Change for Regional Models and Resilient
Communities addressing the main issue of establishing linkages and
dissimilarities between climate change and risk reduction and importantly what
measures can be adopted. Virinder Sharma notes that Climate Change Adaptation
(CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) overlaps in many areas; both CCA and
DRR talk about reducing impacts of shocks by anticipating risks and addressing vulnerabilities,
such as hydro-meteorological hazards which is reflected in climate variability
and extreme weather events; though each have separate international processes
(UNFCC and Hyogo Framework), institutional set-up, tools and instruments,
however both CCA and DRR are at the stage where they are struggling to achieve
integration into development. For this objective, to achieve successful
coordination it is important that we address issues of incentives, both within
and outside the institutional infrastructure.
However there are certain challenges towards
achieving convergence between CCA and DRR. These are; conflict in understanding
if investment is to be made in prevention or in infrastructure and social
processes/systems and conflict between humanitarian assistance and support for
risk reduction. Moreover, since CCA and DRR are embedded into separate
institutional framework it is increasingly seen that incidents of duplication
of efforts, resources, administrative structure is on the rise.
Hence there is an urgent need for policy
coherence and effective use of resources to immediately address the risk to
developmental goals. To meet the overall objective of minimum risk Virinder
Sharma stated that certain measures must be adopted; work through a public
private partnership model whereby the sharing of information and knowledge is
necessitated and professionals working in the field of DRR have to at the same
time focus upon CCA, funding mechanisms need to be channeled together,
institutional incentives must be established at all levels of operation whether
at the individual/village/block/district level and importantly to achieve
resilient models of empowered communities.
Sudhir K.
Sinha, Country Head, CSR, Arcelor Mittal
highlighted the dilemma that agencies often faced when unable to establish the
linkage between Climate Change and Disaster. The first dilemma, he notes is
that we take disaster and climate change and global warming separately even
when natural disaster and climate change are two faces of the same coin that
cannot be segregated. The second dilemma is that during times of disaster, it
is naturally believed that relief and humanitarian response is the sole
responsibility of the State. Even whilst corporate, NGOs and other stakeholders
are no doubt coming forward to help, the mindset and attitude remains
unchanged. Hence for greater understanding and concern it is necessary to
firstly begin viewing disaster and response to disaster as a collective domain
and not merely restricted to the state and lastly climate change has to come
down from the greater National Level to the community level / people level.
Sharing his experience on the corporate response
to disaster, he stated that most of the corporate respond in the form of
philanthropic act in terms of signing of cheque's and finding technological
solutions, which is unfortunately not sufficient. He expressed that Corporate
need to understand the impact of the
Natural
Disaster on the Business continuum and hence must adopt disaster management as
an integral part of business strategy. Also recommended that under CSR there
should be a separate budget allocated for Disaster Management, promote
Corporate Volunteering where 10% of the employees could be trained on Disaster
Management and be made available to respond at times of disaster within 24 - 48
hours and also join hands with NGOs and work towards a solution based approach.
He also reflected upon the need to work closely with the NDMA and on initiating
a dialogue/suggestion sharing policy that will help influence policy making.
To achieve this end, Arcelor Mittal is adopting
the model of Public Private Partnership model by working with the Ministry of
Environment & Forest and Centre for Environment Education for the 'Save the
Earth Campaign'. Launched on July 5, 2008, by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests, Government of India the Kaun Banega Bharat ka Paryavaran Ambassador
Campaign is an ambitious project with focus upon climate change. The campaign
has with two phases:
(1). 'Kaun Banega Bharat Ka Paryavaran
Ambassador' campaign: Launched to choose a person to be the spokesperson on
environmental issues to encourage people to make right lifestyle choices
(2). CO2 Pick Right Campaign: Aimed at spreading
awareness about the right choices one needs to make to reduce the impact of
climate change
Sudhir Sinha stated that this is where Arcelor
Mittal is not only signing the cheque and giving to an NGO to run the project
but also getting involved to ensure/increase schools' participation in the
campaign, involve as many students as possible in selecting the Paryavaran
Ambassador and initiate educational activities at the school-level. He also
invited other corporate, NGOs, individuals and most importantly the media to
join hands for the campaign and help present it to the country and the world as
a best practice.
O.P Khorwal, Additional General Manager, NTPC highlighted the impact of climate change and
some of the measures that need to be taken for disaster reduction. Climate
change cannot be restricted to the local domain, rather as seen it has a bearing upon food security, global
economy, distribution of land use, wide dislocation of people and settlements,
migration of people, increasing health hazards, rise of epidemics, issues of
home security, loss of life and property, in the midst of increasing disaster.
To
meet these challenges it is necessary to address the issues contributing to
global warming and social injustice to developing countries to enable them to
carry out developmental activities at an affordable costs, maximum utilization
of the available technology for the purpose of risk reduction, use of
innovative strategies for generating forewarning and attention to disaster like
communication satellite, sharing of resources particularly technology like
polar arbitrary satellites for providing high resolution imageries and
technical information, better coordination and commitment at the national and
international level, improved institutional arrangements and channeling of
resources and administrative machineries for effective data generation and
collection in disaster prone/critical areas, for prediction of vulnerability,
preparedness to handle major disasters like floods, tsunamis, earthquake,
cyclone through the use of geo-stationary satellites.
Dr I. P Abrol, Founder- Professional Alliance for
Conservation Agriculture also gave a
powerful presentation on the relationship between agricultural production and
climate change. He commented that
agriculture is an important sector for India, feeding more than 1 billion
people and providing livelihood to over 600 million people livelihood. It is
with this consideration that we need to take note of the working of agriculture
and its impact on climate change and vice versa.
Dr
Abrol commented that agriculture is facing many challenges and we need factor
these issues into the development agenda. Conservation of agriculture must also
look at adoption of innovative technological measures to promote scientific
production and sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, partnerships must be
built between corporate, Governments, NGOs and stakeholders. Forest and its
great work all across the nation starting from School education to Higher
education to Industrial Initiatives and work with NGOs & Corporates on
Climate Change issues and Waste Management.
Prabjhot
Sodhi, National Coordinator- Centre for Environment & Education India
talked about GEF UNDP Small Grants Program which runs in about 130 countries
with 278 different projects. In such initiative 27 best practices which are
taken up by small institutions and corporate are scaled up with the
support from the government. During the brief talk on disaster emphasis was on
Waste as a Disaster, highlighting the physical characteristics of waste changing
due to mounting use of packaging
materials, paper, cellophane, Styrofoam and plastic, the rural-urban shift as a
result of search for livelihood, the increase of waste burning etc. The
tremendous increase is reflected by the fact that paper waste increased by
225%; plastic - Styrofoam and rubber by 1530%. He sent out a message that time
has come and we really need to move from ISO into a different ball game now by
reviving the Ecomark Scheme.
Therefore, Prabjhot Sodhi vehemently stated that
we need to work towards getting into the way out for Sustainable lifestyles
promoting the Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) model approach. There
is no one type of approach or single formula by which it needs to be instituted
but all needs to be collectively working on the approaches.
The day-long conference was concluded with a CALL FOR ACTION from the future
generation- the girls of Kamala
Nehru College.
The students of Geography Department, Kamala Nehru
College gave a brief
overview of the activities of the college where the active youth participation
is at the forefront. Coming to the context of climate change Zoya Sodhi gave a
presentation on "Join Hands Go Green" with focus upon challenging the emerging
high consumption lifestyle.
Zoya Sodhi also
highlighted the upcoming five days International Conference on Climate Change
to be organized by the Department of Geography, Delhi University
in August 2009.
RECOMMENDATIONS
SESSION I- CROSS SECTOR PARNERSHIP FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT
§
Need to develop
innovative approaches and processes for disaster preparedness, mitigation and
response.
§
Need to initiate
and build upon effective intra and inter partnership within different sectors,
such as within the corporate sector, between the corporate and the government
authorities, between corporate bodies and community organizations and even
within the civil society groups.
§
To work upon
building varied dimensions of partnership, such as thematic partnership,
strategic partnership, resource partnership and knowledge partnership.
§
These partnerships
would put together a sustainable network that will work towards addressing
various aspects and issues of disaster mitigation, preparedness and response.
SESSION II- COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE FOR REGIONAL
MODELS & RESILIENT COMMUNITIES
l
An important
thought raised is "where are we moving?", "who is responsible for the carbon
footprint?"
l
The state of the
600 million people who depend upon agricultural as the only means of livelihood
for the people also needs to be addressed.
l
Corporate
initiatives to combat climate change as well as deal with disaster reduction
needs to be emulated on a wider scale.
Participating Organisations :
Launch of Corporate Disaster Resource Network (CDRN) & International
Conference on "Combating Climate Change for Disaster Reduction &
Sustainable Business with Climate Friendly Private Sector Initiatives"
IRRWS, Mc Clelland
Engineers Pvt.Ltd.,, AID Delhi, RMSI Pvt ltd, Indian Society of Hospital, Waste
Management (ISHWM), United Way of Mumbai, TATA Bluescope Steel, Project Concern
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