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March 18th 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here
AFINDEX-19
Context:
Africa-India Field Training Exercise-2019 for India and African nations called AFINDEX-19 started at Aundh Military Station, Pune.
Details:
- Contingents of the 17 African Nations. Benin, Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe came together for the opening ceremony along with a contingent of Maratha Light Infantry representing India.
Aim and objective of exercise:
- The aim of the exercise is to practice the participating nations in planning and conduct of Humanitarian Mine Assistance and Peace Keeping Operations under Chapter VII of United Nations Peace Keeping Operations.
- The exercise will focus on exchange of best practices between the participating nations, team building and tactical level operations in conduct of United Nations mandated tasks to include establishment of a new mission, siting of a United Nations Headquarters for Peace Keeping operations, siting of Military Observer sites during the peace keeping missions, protection of civilians, nuances of standing combat deployment, convoy protection, patrolling aspects and aspects related to Humanitarian Mine Assistance.
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter:
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council’s powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and non-military action to “restore international peace and security”.
3rd Indo-Japan Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction
Context:
The 3rd Indo-Japan Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction was held at New Delhi. The workshop was attended by delegates from Japan and India including experts from both the governments, top premium research institutes, city administrators, specialized Disaster Management agencies and private sector.
Details:
- The Government of India and the Government of Japan had signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in September 2017.
- The 3rdworkshop was organized with an objective of enhancing collaboration between research institutes, cities and the private sector in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction.
What is Disaster?
A disaster refers to a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence from natural or man-made causes, which is beyond the coping capacity of the affected community.
Disaster management:
A typical DM continuum comprises six elements; the Pre-disaster phase includes prevention, mitigation and preparedness, while the Post-disaster phase includes response, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery.
Disaster Risks in India:
- India is vulnerable, in varying degrees, to a large number of natural as well as man-made disasters.
- 6 per cent of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity;
- over 40 million hectares (12 per cent of land) is prone to floods and river erosion; of the 7,516 km long coastline, close to 5,700 km of coast is prone to cyclones and tsunamis;
- 68 per cent of the cultivable area is vulnerable to drought and hilly areas are at risk from landslides and avalanches.
- Vulnerability to disasters/emergencies of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) origin also exists.
- Heightened vulnerabilities to disaster risks can be related to expanding population, urbanisation and industrialisation, development within high-risk zones, environmental degradation and climate change.
- In the context of human vulnerability to disasters, the economically and socially weaker segments of the population are the ones that are most seriously affected. Within the vulnerable groups, elderly persons, women, children— especially women rendered destitute, children orphaned on account of disasters and differently abled persons are exposed to higher risks.
International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure
Context:
Second International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI) is the workshop organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and in partnership with the Global Commission on Adaptation, United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.
Aims of Work shop:
- Identify good practices of disaster risk management in key infrastructure sectors,
- identify specific areas and pathways for collaborative research on DRI (Transport, Energy, Telecom and Water),
- Discuss and co-create the broad contours of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) as well as a notional roll-out plan for the next three years, and
- Build a forum for members to work on areas of common interest and make specific commitments.
Details:
- Workshop brings together countries from different parts of the world, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, academia and research institutions, the private sector, academics and policy think tanks to discuss and collaborate on promoting policies and practices towards achieving disaster resilience of large infrastructure systems (transport, telecom, energy, water). This will also be a great opportunity to learn from the unique experiences of different countries.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction AND SDG 9:
- Various international agreements have also reiterated the importance and long-term benefits of investing in resilient infrastructure. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, which is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, identifies investing in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for resilience and to build back better in reconstruction as priorities for action towards reducing disaster risk.
- Similarly, Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes disaster resilient infrastructure as a crucial driver of economic growth and development.
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March 18th 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here
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