International Strategy For Disaster Reduction Day
For Safety Of Human Lives

By Rajendra P. Khanal

THE United Nations General Assembly defined a decade from 1990 to 1999 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) in 1987 and adopted a resolution to drastically reduce damage from Natural Disasters. IDNDR started in 1990 as one of the major activities of the United Nations. The second Wednesday of the October was declared the IDNDR Day.
Cooperation

The IDNDR Day has been observed in Nepal since 1991 by organising meetings, seminars and training programmes. These programmes often receive a national focus and many governmental and non-governmental organisations have been involved.

The Nepal Geological Society (NGS) had, over the years been working in close cooperation with the IDNDR National Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs, UNDP/Nepal and Lutheran World Service Nepal in fulfilling the goals of IDNDR.

Nepal is a disaster prone country in the world. Because of her location characterised by rugged topography, very steep slope, variable climetic conditions, complex geological structures with active tectonic process and continued seismic activities, the country is prone to various types of natural hazards. These vary from snow avalanches and glacier lake outburst to flood (GLOF) in the higher Himalayas to fire and flood in the rest of the country. Landslides and earthquakes are frequent. They are causing extensive damage to the national economy and incurring heavy loss of lives and property every year. So many government and non-government organisations are involved in the disaster reduction and mitigation works in Nepal.

The concept of IDNDR has been instrumental in transferring the emphasis from relief and rescue to preparedness. Various agencies of His Majesty's Government of Nepal like Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Narcotics Control and Disaster Management, Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention, Department of Soil Conservation etc. are active in disaster prevention, mitigation and management works in close cooperation with various international agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA), Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC), Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre(ADPC), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Red Cross Society (IRCS), United Mission to Nepal (UMN), Cooperation for American Relief Everywhere (CARE), World Food Programme (WEF),Save the Children Fund (SCF),Technical Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany (GTZ), Lutheran World Service (LWS), OXFAM etc. Besides these, various other professional and non-governmental organisations like Nepal Geological Society, Nepal Red Cross Society, Nepal Engineers' Association and NSET Nepal have also been providing highly valuable support to the natural disaster mitigation and management works in Nepal.

Based on the lessons from the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), the UN has established the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) as a global framework for action with a view to enabling all Societies to become resilient to the effects of natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters in order to reduce human, economic and social losses. It involves a conceptual shift from an emphasis on disaster response to the management of risk through the integration of disaster reduction into sustainable development.

The implementation of the Strategy is premised at the establishment of partnerships between governments, non-government organisations, UN agencies, the scientific community, the media as well as other relevant stakeholders in the disaster reduction community.

The four goals of the strategy are to increase public awareness about disaster reduction to obtain commitment from public authorities to stimulate inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral partnerships, and to improve the scientific knowledge of the causes of natural disasters and the consequences of the impact of natural hazards.

National Participation, as the primary ingredient for sub-regional, regional and international cooperation with regard to natural disaster reduction is a critical factor of the success of the ISDR. 'ISDR National Committee' or 'ISDR Focal Point' is designated by the government of each country and serve as an interface between national and international levels within ISDR. In any event the national platform should be kept informed and copied on all relevant correspondence between the Secretariat and contacts at national level.

Involvement

ISDR- Day has been proposed by the UN for second Wednesday of October of every year from 2001.The Nepal Geological Society observed ISDR -Day by conducting a seminar on natural disaster reduction in cooperation with Ministry of Home Affairs and UNDP/ Nepal. All concerned authorities of HMG of Nepal, all relevant consulting firms, NGOs and INGOs and professional organisations as well as local political activists of all municipalities of Kathmandu Valley are actively involved in the seminar.

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