International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is being is being organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and in partnership with the Global Commission on Adaptation, United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.

• The workshop will bring together countries from different parts of the world, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, academia and research institutions, the private sector, academics and policy think tanks to discuss and collaborate on promoting policies and practices towards achieving disaster resilience of large infrastructure systems (transport, telecom, energy, water). This will also be a great opportunity to learn from the unique experiences of different countries.
• Various international agreements have also reiterated the importance and long-term benefits of investing in resilient infrastructure.
• The first International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI 2018) was held in January 2018.

The workshop aims to:

• Identify good practices of disaster risk management in key infrastructure sectors,
• Identify specific areas and pathways for collaborative research on DRI (Transport, Energy, Telecom and Water),
• Discuss and co-create the broad contours of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) as well as a notional roll-out plan for the next three years, and
• Build a forum for members to work on areas of common interest and make specific commitments.

The main objectives of the workshop are to:

• Take stock of impact of disasters on different infrastructure sectors and good practices in making infrastructure disaster resilient;
• Identify critical  gaps  in  current  practices  that  need  to  be  addressed  in  the  coming years; and 
• Identify good practices and potential areas of collaboration along four themes:
• Development of risk assessment methodologies, risk metrics and indicators of sustainability for different infrastructure classes;
• Issues of  standards,  design  and  regulation  for  infrastructure  development, operations and maintenance;
• Financing for  disaster  resilient  infrastructure  including  risk  transfer mechanisms; and
• Reconstruction and recovery of key infrastructure sectors after disasters.
  
  

  The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, which is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, identifies investing in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for resilience and to build back better in reconstruction as priorities for action towards reducing disaster risk. Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)recognizes disaster resilient infrastructure as a crucial driver of economic growth and development.