India: Strengthening DPRR in six State and District DM Authorities
India: Strengthening Disaster Preparedness & Risk Reduction (DPRR) programs of 2 State DM Authorities (SDMAs) & 2 District DM Authorities (DDMAs) in each state through technical support, enhancing linkages with state climate action plans.
Description
The Volunteer commitment, India, was first posted on the UNISDR website on 14 Feb 2015 with 3 components: i) A baseline desk review to take stock of the strengths, gaps and needs of SDMAs and DDMAs in India followed by an in depth study of 6 SDMAs and 18 DDMAs ii) Based on needs identified, & interest of SDMAs & DDMAs, VERVE Volunteers program and partners will provide technical support (TS) to strengthen implementation of the DRR programs of State DMAs (upto 2) and District DDMAs (upto 4 from above), iii) Identify linkage & promote partnership of the chosen State and District DM Plans with the State Climate Action Plan. Since Sendai, MPN has been in intermittent dialogue with relevant interested Indian organizations, Academic institutions & CSOs (esp Red R India and JTSDM/TISS students & faculty & SEEDS) who are willing to lead on/elaborate components, roles of organisations & timelines. On i), documents from selected states have been collected and a partial desk study done. Planning for ii) began with Red R India in Nov 2015 and April 2016 and has continued. Dialogue with individuals working/ or have worked in Govt. of India (GoI) depts. (MHA, NDMA), some State Govts. (Maharashtra, Bihar, Sikkim, Uttaranchal, Assam, Gujarat and Orissa); related institutions (NIDM, some SIDMs, UN agency India offices) & academic & CSOs was done in Mumbai & Delhi from May to Sept 2018. A 3 member Advisory Committee of former senior officials of GoI, State Govts, NDMA & SDMA members has been constituted. Planning for component iii) has been initiated with Climate Change related GoI organizations & NGOs (CANSA, GEAG). A draft action plan in four phases has been prepared: Phases 1 & 2 till 2022, Phase 3 till 2025 (expansion upto 6 states) & Phase 4 by March 2029, covering routinisation & integration into ongoing work of at least 50% of SDMAs & a significant number of DDMAs. Detailed plans for phase 2 till Dec 2022 are under review and finalisation. Dialogue with donors, foundations and national grant giving institutions is being initiated in the first third of the ongoing year.
Did the Sendai Framework change or contribute to changes in your activities/organization? If so, how?
Yes. It enabled national and state level planning to be more focussed, formed a basis for review of the earlier commitment made in Jan 2015, and provided motivation for action and broad indicators of progress since Sendai which include numbers of volunteers and partners engaged, and numbers of districts supported on DRR.
What led you to make this commitment/initiative?
What was your position before making this Voluntary Commitment / prior to the Sendai Framework?
Our organisation was established in 2012 in the year of the Rio +20 conference. The newly created SDMAs and DDMAS established after 2005 in India have identified state and district implementation as a priority. This VC builds on past and ongoing work of various Govt. organisations and NGOs, and is supported by the Sendai Framework that encourages better articulation of responsibilities as well as the involvement and empowerment of local actors with resources, incentives and decision making responsibilities. Moreover, there is a clear call for enhancing governance (including local governments) for disaster response, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Deliverables and Progress report
Deliverables
Deliverables are the end-products of the initiative/commitment, which can include issuance of publications or knowledge products, outcomes of workshops, training programs, videos, links, photographs, etc.
Progress made in mobilising partners and assessing needs of Govt organisations and Partner capacities and resource needs.
This will report on progress made from January 2019 - June 2020 in the same selected state SDMAs and district DDMAs and other partner organisations working at this level in continuing to mobilise resources, undertake relevant follow up activities as identified and planned, and improving disaster preparedness and management in the states and districts as a whole. The report will follow a similar structure as that adopted finally in the previous report.
Progress Report 2020 will have a short additional chapter laying down the plan to identify Govt. budgets allocated, further resources needed and actions agreed on by the mechanisms and look at some more States for starting up implementation to be elaborated in the next report (see below).
This reports on the progress made from July 2020 - December 2021 over a 1.5 year period. The report will document discussions with SDMAs and DDMAs and their leadership on Govt. budgets allocated, further resources needed and actions agreed. It will also lay out some more States for starting up implementation and list out next steps in the ongoing project till March 2022 and beyond.
Porgress report
In 2021, the project was negatively impacted by COVID-19, but significant progress was still made in fine tuning activities and identifying potential private sector partners. The work is guided by a three-member Advisory Committee and we continue to make progress on Phase 1 of the project with a focus on the following:
a) Development of a VERVE volunteer programme targeted towards skilled young to mid - level professionals to work in the field of DRR/CCA; and
b) SEEDS and Red R will lead the program of VERVE Volunteers to partner with 2 SDMAs and 6 DDMAs to provide technical support to the implementation of Disaster Risk Prevention and Reduction programs of these institutions.
We attended the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Bali, Indonesia, during which we connected and engaged with different DRR stakeholders. There has been significant progress in the implementation of Phase 1 of the project and we continue to work with our partners leading up to the next phases of the project. Voluntary contributions were made by Red R, SEEDS and MPN DRR Professional working a good part of their time on the project and developing/revising a brief project proposal, a budget and a list of potential private sector and other donors in country.
A more detailed report on our progress has been uploaded as an output to our deliverable above.
Organizations and focal points
Implementing Organization(s)
Focal points
Partners
