Inaugural Session

 

Mrs. Angela Nar of Responsenet welcomed the respected dignitaries of the supporting and partner organizations National Disaster Management Authority -  IRG -  USAID -  Omaxe Foundation and other co-partners to the International Disaster Management Conference held on 19^th March 2007 -  with the theme of Facilitating Supply Chains for Disaster Preparedness and Response. 

 

She thanked Mr. Vinod Chandra Menon of NDMA especially for the expertise provided magnanimously for the unique initiative. Furthermore - Chairman of Sphere India -  Mr. N M Prusty and Mr.Greg Austreng for the  benevolent support extended by IRG and USAID to make the conference a truly meaningful and continued initiative.

 

She thanked Omaxe Foundation for providing strength in organizing the conference. And also extended sincere gratitude towards the co partners - Services International - Brand smith and AMS Acoustics.

 

A further emphasis was provided by her on the challenges and the continued engagement that the stakeholders which would need to work towards in a reliable and effective manner leveraging this conference..  

 

She concluded by expressing the importance of cooperation among the stakeholders and partnerships that need to be built up in the coming years for an effective and efficient Disaster Preparedness and Response.

 

Mr. Apporva Joshi - Mr. V C Menon - Mr. J Guruwara & Prof. A S Arya inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp and the conference continued by an Inaugural Address by Mr. V C Menon welcoming the dignitaries -  delegates and the organisers.

 

Mr. V C Menon -  Member of National Disaster Management Authority (GOI) in his inaugural speech expressed the importance of the conference theme "Facilitation of Supply Chain for Disasters" primarily because in humanitarian assistance -  the role of humanitarian relief has been seen as something which is laden with lots of unpredictability. Unpredictable primarily because natural disasters are very unpredictable. He also added that the unpredictability of Natural Disaster is something which can be extremely  overwhelming not only for the Disaster Management Committee but also for the local administrative. He also highlighted that we often wonder in the field of Disaster Management and its often said that the only predictable aspect of disaster is the unpredictability which is so predictable.

 

Mr. V C Menon also emphasized on one of the biggest challenges for humanitarian agencies and the national government -  which is the high probability of a low probability event which is likely to happen anytime anywhere -  which could be Natural Disaster or a Man Made Disaster. He also said that as we are dealing with the unpredictability of this very high probability -  we do not know where it is likely to happen and when it is going to happen and therefore the need to be prepared. Emphasizing further he   mentioned that in the preparation of humanitarian assistance logistics -  the whole aspect of logistics to supply chain management is a major transition.

 

The two major events which he highlighted that have altered the transition from logistics to supply chain management in humanitarian relief are 9/11 in United States and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. He stressed upon on how these two events have changed the perception of Man Made Disaster globally.

 

Recalling the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 where we didn't have the life savings interventions that the International Search & Rescue Team has -   He highlighted the use of communications at times of disasters citing the example -  that in just 17 minutes after the Gujarat Earthquake -  how individuals from around the world were coordinating on the internet about their availability and their readiness.

Mr. Menon also talked about the ending of International Decade for Disaster Reduction and how the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction brought about a paradigm shift from post disaster relief to investment in strengthening preparedness and mitigation. And thus was set up the National Disaster Management Authority to strengthen the preparedness and relief under the honourable Prime Minister and General Vij with 7 members participating towards the goal.

 

Following to that -  he defined Humanitarian Logistics as the process of planning -  implementing and controlling the cost-effective flow and storage of goods and materials -  as well as related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of the disaster  affected people. He also stated that it encompasses a range of activities from preparedness -  planning -  procurement -  storage and warehousing -  transport -  tracking and tracing -  customs clearance and in-country distribution.

 

He added that the period from 1990 to 2000 saw the total humanitarian aid from governments double in real terms from governments $ 2.1 billion to $ 5.9 billion. It was also mentioned that in the post Tsunami period -  it was estimated that the aid budget may have grown to $ 12 billion. Mentioning that -  he also stressed upon the contribution of large governmental donors like USA and European Union contributing 33% and 10% of humanitarian aid in recent years. Also -  countries like Japan -  Canada -  Australia and a few European countries are contributing to the humanitarian aid in a big way.

 

Recalling some of the past conferences organized by Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and organizations like Fritz Institute's -  Mr. V C Menon gave emphasis on the thousands of Supply Chain Specialists and vendors networks that are being created.

 

Before concluding some of the few areas that he mentioned which are very critical in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management are:

 

• Communicating the strategic importance of Humanitarian Logistics
• Creating a professional logistics community
• Investing in a standardized training and certification
• Focusing on metrics and performance measurement
• Creating a flexible technology solutions environment: Knowledge Management -  IT and ICT Enabled Solutions

 

Lastly but not the least -  he shared with the delegates on how the internet provides a very fascinating potential for really understanding what is happening with different organizations and highlighting the availability of many convergence tools that are available on the internet. Ending with that he also didn't miss out the many fascinating web solutions available from Microsoft and IBM which are proof of concept solutions on emergency management.

 

He consequentially concluded the conference by thanking the organizers for bringing all the stakeholders together which is extremely a valuable opportunity for every participant to share their thoughts on supply chains for disaster management..

 

The speech of Mr. Apoorva Joshi was made by Mr.Tapan Chowdhary -  who started by thanking Responsenet and other dignitaries for inviting him to address International conference on "Facilitation of Supply Chain for Disasters and Learning's of Stakeholders for proactive scalable collaborations".

 

He appreciated the opportunity to be with Mr. V C Menon on the occasion to talk about the importance of Disaster Management and Preparedness understanding that when we are dealing with a natural disaster -  preparedness is a shared responsibility.

 

Most importantly -  he mentioned on how effective preparedness requires teamwork across all levels of the government and society -  and thus requiring joint planning -  coordination -  training and execution. Not to forget -  we have to have a common approach -  a coordinated effort -  across all of the phases of what we have to do to prevent -  protect -  respond and recover.

 

He pointed out a need to identify and prioritize the risks -- understanding of the threat -  the vulnerability and its consequence and then applying our resources in a most cost-effective manner -  using discipline and common sense in order to minimize the risk without imposing undue cost on our communities and our families.

 

He concluded assuring that with the valuable time and inputs given during the conference -  would bring in concrete suggestions in terms of Preparedness and Coordinating Response for Disaster Management -  Reduction and Mitigation and various approaches reaching the vulnerable urban space.

 

Following this we had Prof A S Arya -  the National Seismic Advisor Ministry of Home Affairs (GOI) in his special address emphasized on how Natural Disaster like Gujarat Earthquake in 2001 became an opportunity for developments. In this he commented the preparedness sent from Israel of the mobile hospital which came after 2 days with the preparedness like food -  tents -  doctors -  paramedics -  medicines etc -  to tackle the disasters effectively and efficiently.

 

Prof. Arya pointed out the Assessment of Damages as an important issue involved in our preparedness. He also mentioned the two kinds of Damage Assessment - firstly the immediate assessment that will give total picture to the government and secondly the requirements such as physical requirements and  health requirements which will help us to prepare the supply for any disasters.

 

During his speech one situation he highlighted was that during the Bhuj Earthquake there were lots of medicines that came but were of no use due to issues like storage and expiry date. He further elaborated the needs for cultural sensitivity of relief supplies at the time of disasters to be kept in mind by donors and beneficiaries of the donations.

 

He emphasized on the first element of supply chain which is to estimate what is required and in what quantity these are   required. He added that a lot of preparedness and supply is needed including of international supplies but to coordinate their coming -  receiving and coordinate with the supplies -  on what is needed and then to be able to get out the material -  warehousing and then arrange the distribution to the needy properly is what is needed to be planned and thought about systematically.

 

Prof A S Arya concluded his special address by highlighting the importance of NGOs on how they proactively helped in any disasters so far. He finally expressed that we together can certainly plan our things in a much better way and work together at the times of disaster more efficiently and effectively.

 

The inaugural session was concluded by Mr. Jaydeep Guruwara by giving a special remark and welcoming the organizers -  supporters and co-partners.

Session 1 - Learning's & Coordination Experience

The first session of the conference began by welcoming Mr. N M Prusty -  Chairperson of Sphere India National Coalition of Humanitarian Agencies in India who chaired the session on "Learning's & Coordination Experience". He began by highlighting few challenges that we face in India which are the coordination -  integration and alignment. Saying this he mentioned about the establishment of Quality Accountability Protocol called Sphere through which few principles have been developed which highlighted the sphere standards in the context of disaster response. Subsequently -  in this humanitarian charter -  what has been focused time and again very consistently is to promote on how the stakeholders could be involved included in developing preparedness of mitigation and response mechanism. To ensure this inclusiveness process most important thing he affirmed is the information and how this information management is to be practiced and placed.

 

Infrastructure -  livelihood -  environment -  life saving intervention and governance are few things which Mr. Prusty highlighted as are very essential and needs to be integrated and coordinated.

 

He further stressed upon how effectively we can start utilizing the services -  products -  knowledge and practices which are already available in our country and not to forget that all these availability needs to be advertised to bring humanitarian action to the grass root levels.

 

Mr. Prusty further invited co-panelist to speak on their subjects and share their learning's to better our response.

 

Preparedness and Relief Coordination's Learning - Experience from the past

Click here to view the complete Presentation of Ms.Nina Minka, USAID
The first panelist of session one was Ms. Nina Minka -  The Senior Disaster Management Advisor -  Office of Social Development -  USAID - India.  She started her presentation "Preparedness & Relief Coordination" commenting on the increase of vulnerability to Natural Disasters around the world. One of the greatest challenges that she saw in this 21^st century is protecting people -  especially poor from the devastating catastrophe ever since we have seen disasters. She emphasized these challenges also to be mapped with the new thinking -  with the paradigm shift from simply responding to preparedness and disaster mitigation. Some of the several reasons she pointed out of why vulnerability is increasing are:

 

• Population density & urbanization
• Settlements in hazard prone areas
• Poor natural resource management

 

Another point that she highlighted as one of the most important is that people are really beginning to recognise that disasters are not entirely a humanitarian issue but also an economic issue. More and more countries are adopting new approaches and this new thinking in the paradigm shift is looking at preparedness and not just at response.

 

She also mentioned that according to the World Bank -  India is second after China in receiving recovery assistance from Multi -lateral organisations

 

Some of the lessons learned from Disaster Management in United States and other places she talked about are:

• Preparedness and risk reduction programs must be based on good information and valid assessments of hazards -  vulnerability and capacities.
• Organized forums for coordination of all stakeholders (NGOs -  donors -  government. corporate sector) are critical.
• Any disaster response activity must be coordinated with -  and complement -  other initiatives programs to the greatest extent possible. 
• Efforts at the community level must not be in isolation but linked to municipal -  state and national initiatives
• Disaster recovery begins with the very first response to the event
• Value of International Cooperation U. S. has valuable experience & expertise as do many other countries

 

She also mentioned about USAID working with Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy to adapt the US Incident Command System (ICS) to the Indian Disaster Management Context and to come up with the Indian Incident Command System. Mentioning that she added that the program is an ongoing initiative and  collectively working towards training and to see how the system works in India and   how it can be used as a model for other states.

 

Another area that USAID is focusing in working with India is the Climate Forecasting Systems (CFS) which is used at the times of cyclones and floods.  Here she emphasized that they are not looking at the warning but also at the end to end system which means that we have to improve the science to get very good warning but then we also have to help people understand what to do when the warning is given and help media to understand how to convey the message to people.

 

USAID is supporting the Delhi Earthquake Safety Initiatives Program which has been there for the last two years where they have experts from California.  As California is one of the most seismic prone earthquake risk area in United States and many lessons being learned from the past earthquake can be related. Experts from California are coming and working with experts here in India with Experts from IIT -  Kanpur with Engineers from Delhi Public Works Department to look at five buildings in India -  including a hospital and a school and how can these buildings be retrofitted -  how can they be made safer so that even if earthquakes come -  they will be resist.

 

She concluded the presentation highlighting the Tsunami Recovery Program which is looking at helping people both at immediate response and afterwards. In recovery -  she added that USAID has programs  in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry where they focus on the following:

 

• Livelihoods -  skills training -  protection of women and children -  maintaining temporary settlements in a habitable condition.
• Helping communities be better prepared for the next disaster
• Linking Nagapattnam and Cuddalore with cities in Florida - focus on city planning and mitigation for potential disasters

 

 

Coordination of Developmental Agencies & Civil Society Organizations for Humanitarian Crisis

After a very comprehensive presentation from Ms. Nina Minka -  Mr. N M Prusty welcomed Dr. Parivelan -  Information Management and Communication Associate from Tamil Nadu Tsunami Resource Centre to talk about "Coordination of Developmental Agencies & Civil Society Organizations for Humanitarian Crisis". Dr. Parivelan introduced TNTRC as a joint initiative of the post Tsunami context to facilitate the recovery process and it has been put together as an initiative by UNDP primarily. Some of the key NGOs playing the role in TNTRC consist of Oxfam -  Save the Children -  Caritas -  Christian Aid -  and Plan International in joint collaboration with the government. The forum was initiated with three basic mandates:

 

a)    Coordination which is the recovery process b) knowledge networking and c) thirdly the information collection and dissemination.

 

In the session -  Dr. Parivelan shared the Tamil Nadu experience on how they have handled the Tsunami response which will be useful to link up with the supply chain management context specially preparedness. He also clearly pointed out that we are shifting from response centric approach to preparedness centric

 

TNTRC in the response context was set up to avoid the duplication efforts which are done in any humanitarian context and also to fill up the gaps when we are responding in a huge magnitude disaster. He then highlighted some of the areas they are working in collaboration with the INGOs which involves livelihood -  agriculture -  skills training -  trafficking -  HIV-AIDS -  Child Care etc.

 

He highlighted   National Disaster Management Authority which heads the  National NGOs Task Force which constitutes organizations with experience in zonal community based Disaster Risk Management to coordinate the  policy guidelines.

 

He then also highlighted the importance of having kiosk at a community level where ICT tools are available and are     user friendly and can easily be  accesses for vital information. Community Radio is one simple tool that he mentioned which has been highlighted that can be used for early warning and information sharing. The most important thing he added is the Interfacing of technology -  simplifying and linking up with the community is what we are learning in the Tsunami Resource Context.

 

As a conclusion -  another important development he stressed upon is the emergence of the district resources where NGOs coordination emerged right after Tsunami. He also sees a value in which we have the national coordination coming at the state level and then going down to the district level where these centers  interface with the government and civil society and humanitarian organizations providing value with such dialogues on supply chains and technologies being discussed.  

 

Role of ECHO in Humanitarian Aid

Click here to view the Presentation made by Mr.Olivier Brouant, Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid-Echo, of the European Commission

Our final panelist of the session was Mr. Olivier Brouant -  Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid-ECHO -  of the European Commission and the topic he shared was on the Role of ECHO in Humanitarian Aid. He introduced the audience to prepare ourselves and communities for disasters and also to have a room for improvisation to prepare with historical learning's of past disasters for the future disasters. He emphasized on the point of keeping the door open for new thoughts.

 

He continued with the topic on coordination & preparedness emphasizing that like earlier times 10-15 years ago the need for coordination is very important now & this coordination has truly improved -  as was the case with South Asia Earthquake with the engaging of NGOs & partners where the coordination was relatively well & effective. 

 

The first level of coordination highlighted was the need for strategic coordination with donors like USAID -  DFID & ECHO at coordination meetings which they have to reach common understanding & to avoid duplication in funding the same organizations as a minimum standard. He further stated the advice given by ECHO to other organizations to coordinate among themselves. Neighbors who do not speak to each other are not effective was how he pointed out the need for sharing of information. Agencies that do not share information are looked at suspiciously and cannot be accepted.

 

The second level of coordination highlighted was of geographical -  sectoral -  theoretical -  coordination and is critical for all actors to coordinate in such a forum at field level -  regional -  national & international level to talk and to be on the same line of action. He pointed out that coordination is an investment that has to be made. This can be done by dedicating a full time person who focuses on coordination role which is a task different from operations and that is being supported by ECHO.

 

He went on to say that coordination should have a common reference like the sphere standards. A common consensus approach to standards is important for actors like NGOs -  state & non state and International Organisations.

 

For any crisis the first responders are not outsiders but are victims & families in the affected area. International responders at best can only come two to three days after. The local community know how needs to be built upon as a lesson learnt.

 

Preparedness and needs are to be from community & state levels. He reminded the audience to the formula -   risk equals hazard times vulnerability divided by capacity. Thus to decrease vulnerability aim is to increase capacity & ECHO has incorporated into emergency response for decreasing the risk for preparedness for the future.

 

For instance -  after floods when a rehabilitation drive is being looked at by ECHO -  they will have an emphasis for future flood assistance i.e to raise water points and all partners need to have a coordinated thought process.

 

For preparedness -  he concluded by highlighting the linkages between community & government where the role of the donor is important as the grassroots level NGOs & CBOs which are being funded by the donors. He further referred to the framework to integrate into policies for disaster management as a strategy goal of EC & American friends to build institutes at community levels & to build disaster preparedness to respond to disasters.

 

Mr. N M Prusty -  Chairman of the session answering a question for sustainability of these kiosks highlighted that in Pondicherry these kiosks were created and how these are leveraged by demand -  and once demand is created the cost of running these centres will be taken care of. Once quality & demand of these services meets -  needs of the people is delivered in appropriate time & appropriate cost thus emphasizing the need for cost & need which will sustain the kiosks.  

 

Mr. Manu Gupta of Seeds India mentioned that there is a need for management of chaos which is required and coordination is non-existent. And large organizations are still unorganized & there are altruistic groups who do not come under formal response organizations.  He emphasized a requirement for research on not just information sharing but sharing learning's of individual organizations for immediate relief.

 

Mr. Prusty further stated that early warning in earlier was not appropriate. He went on to state that there are 18 institutions working on weather forecasting and most of them are supported by government & International Organisations. These are excellent institutions with budgetary allocations and some models of these institutes are being used in other countries as well. But in spite of all this -  there are crisis situations because of lack of coordination. How the common purpose and objective is to create a central platform which can bring together these institutes. In the 1980's during the time of Prime Minister -  Rajiv Gandhi the Technology mission was started for which the genesis & objective was to identify the critical crisis areas and they found that more than one institute was working on the same issues and this was not complimenting or supporting each other's work. And the technology mission brought together these institutes & their works and brought results.

 

So the willingness to share & willingness to work towards common objectives is the need of the time as emphasized by Mr.Prusty.

 

One experiment that has been successful is by creating useful platforms -  promoting networks for shelters -  livelihoods -  sanitation -  disaster preparedness etc which are platforms. He emphasized that over a period of time these platforms will create an impact for coordination of individuals and institutions with the demand of the people.

 

A question from the audience to Nina Minka was on the states of the India Command Centre. Nina Minka replied by stating that it is still a way from becoming a system as there is training and understandings which still need to take place for the adaptation to make it a truly an Indian system. The pilot project in Gujarat will help to identify how this will work in India and be a model which will be wrapped up by September 2007.

Session 3 - Innovative solutions - Products & Services for Disasters Can be viewd by clicking here

Session 4 - Effective engagement of Communication & Technology for Disaster Preparedness & Reduction

Presentations can be viewed by clicking below:

 http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetairmarshalaksingh.ppt

htp://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetamsacoustics.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetdhl.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetECHOeuropeancommission.doc

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetIFRC.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetrmsl.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetseedsindia.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenettatateleservices.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetUSAID.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetworldfoodprogram.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetworldhealthorganisation.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/responsenetworldvision.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/RMSL.ppt

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/Rohit Jigyasu.pdf

http://responsenet.org/disastermanagementindia/WHO SEARO.pdf