Ä¢¹½´«Ã½

This document has been developed as an outcome of the 2 days virtual workshop conducted jointly by the Government of India and the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management for the BIMSTEC Member Countries on the 17th and 18th of September, 2021. Against the backdrop of human-induced hazards and disaster risks, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) articulates the need for improved understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of exposure, vulnerability and hazard characteristics as well as the strengthening of disaster risk governance (Ä¢¹½´«Ã½, 2015). The emerging consensus on conceptualizing and understanding disaster risk as systemic (GAR 2019), is expected to provide a comprehensive view of disaster risks. The very nature of systemic risks, not only challenge scientific investigation, but also the society as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of this challenge - how systemic risk translated into a disaster, when hazards (biological in this case) interacted with the contemporary and historical realities of embedded and endogenous vulnerabilities. As we embrace the call of ‘Disaster Risk Management is everyone’s business’, with the growing uncertainties and emergent nature of disaster risk, there is an urgent need to adopt more inclusive, participatory, accountable, transparent, effective, efficient and equitable ways of disaster risk governance.

In line with the theme of 2020’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) - #ItsAllAboutGovernance - as the world gears up to re-imagine the ‘new normal’ with strategies of resilient recovery and sustainable development, through this virtual workshop the Member States of BIMSTEC came together and discussed the lessons that were learnt. The discussions on disaster risk governance encompassed multi-sectoral, multi-departmental, multi-hazard and trans-disciplinary dialogues so that the experiences can be used to prepare us better for the emergent disaster risks & uncertainties of tomorrow.