strengthened to deal with these
changes. However, the linkages
with Disaster Risk Reduction
which by itself needs major changes
would be required.
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Challenges
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While
the Government has
systems to deal with response,
and capacities for it are being
strengthened, the country
needs many more Disaster
Management professionals
to address mitigation and
prevention. The capacity
to develop this human skill
is grossly inadequate in
the Government sector and
outside, including academic
institutions.
l
We
have an enabling
environment in the country
in terms of Institutional
structure (of course it needs
improvement), policies, Acts
and guidelines. The Disaster
Management Authorities
in many states are still not
operational. The State Action
Plan fort Climate Change is
still being prepared by most of
the states.
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While
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l
One of the major requirements
the Finance Ministry
(Government of India) has
issued orders to screen all
new projects from a disaster
risk reduction angle, as a precondition for approval, most of
the functionaries responsible
for certifying do not have
adequate skills to do that.
to reduce risk is a good
understanding of risk. All
State Governments are not
familiar with the methodology
to undertake detailed risk
YOJANA March 2012
l
assessment and there is
very little capacity in the
Government to undertake
these.
Disaster Risk Reduction
(DRR)has to be seen as
development issue. Though
the Five Year Plans (10th and
11th) have clearly articulated
the need to look at disaster
management as a development
issue, in practice it is not
happening.
The approach to conceptualize
Climate Risk Management as a
development problems needs to
be underscored and capacities
for it built. Specific focus is
required on sectors such as
agriculture, food security,
water resources, infrastructure
and health. The concerned
departments dealing with these
sectors will have mainstream
disaster risk reduction in
their sectroral development
initiatives. Efforts are also
required to integrate DRR in
the on-going programmes.
he Human Resources
T
Development will have to be
made systematic. Mere training
alone is not enough to develop
the capacities. The trainers and
trainees will have to be selected
systematically and there should
be provisions for refresher
training and utilization of the
trained personal. In addition
there should be a enabling
environment to facilitate
the mainstreaming of DRR
and tools and methodologies
developed.
Many of the traditional
knowledge in dealing with
extreme events have eit