Financing Disaster Risk Management Leading to Safer Tomorrow

Fri, 11 Mar 2011

As an important stakeholder in disaster reduction through education and research the University of Madras has contributed extensively during the last decade. Apart from establishing a tsunami and coastal studies laboratory the important contributions are made in the preparation of comprehensive tsunami model for the national programme on establishment of early warning system for tsunami and storm surges, preparation of training modules for different target groups starting from school teachers to decision-makers, establishing bilateral collaboration with the institutions / universities in developed countries and networking with various end users and NGO’s for the transfer of technology to the field.

The country is already experiencing the impact of climate disasters in various intensity and frequency. Most importantly the climate disasters disproportionately affect the low and middle income groups. Recent studies have revealed that climate disasters lead to forced migration and also change in livelihood security of the larger population depends on agriculture. Since the scientific understanding on the complex relationships that influence global climate patterns remains incomplete the forecast on climate disasters is still not in order. Climate disasters either drought or flood could result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss property and life, hampering national economic growth.

Dealing with these problems is a challenging task with limited budget in the government, which has to take care of short term funding for immediate relief and also provide long term funds for recovery of infrastructure damage. Therefore development process at large is delayed normally, which ultimately leads to a situation of inadequate quantity of reconstruction. During various demonstrations and interactions with end users it was observed there are some unclear pictures on financial relief including the provisions available in the insurance markets.

 Aim

The brain storming session aims to gather and analyze the information pertaining to financial protection and incentives for vulnerability reduction and to enhance resilience of the community to cope with climate-related as well as natural disasters.

 Participants’ Profile

The brain storming session being multi-disciplinary, expected participants include subject experts in the field of disaster management, representatives of banking and insurance sectors, prominent civil society organizations including print and electronic media, faculty from academic and research institutions, senior government officials and representatives of the UN and international/regional agencies. It is expected that about fifty delegates will participate. There will be a mix of highly informed experts from the strategic level as well as at the ground implementation level from India and UK.

 Expected Outcome

Sharing good practices, policies, tools and guidelines regarding community based disaster vulnerability
reduction, climate change adaptation, urban risk reduction, safety of lifeline structures and lessons from recent disasters. 

University of Madras
Chennai
English