News

The pre-departure meeting for the GPDRR- 2022 was organized on 16th May, 2022 in Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur. The program comprises of GPDRR preparatory updates, discussion about the proposed activities by Nepal in GPDRR event, upcoming APMCDRR, finalization of position paper and formation of joint management efforts. The program was coordinated by DPNet  and attended by Mr. Anil Pokhrel, Executive Chief of NDRRMA, Mr. Pradip Kumar Koirala, Chief of Disaster and Conflict Management Division,  Chief of NEOC Mr. Khumkanta Acharya and other representatives from NPDRR Thematic Committee, NGO, INGO, Academia.

Major Highlights:
Dr. Raju Thapa, Acting Chair of DPNet
Nepal has unique practice of preparing position paper in a common consensus to participate in regional and international events. Such position paper usually prepare in a rigorous consultative process, accommodating all concerned DRR stakeholders. Any contentious issues can be sorted out in a meeting and prepare a common position paper that represent a voice of all stakeholders. Position paper guides every individual and intuition that attend such international platform to maintain the uniformity on Nepal voice in DRR. This year we have also conducted rigorous consultative process to prepare a zero draft of the position paper and official statement too. We will conduct other consultative meeting to bring out final position paper so that it would be accepted by all.
We also need to prepare for the the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR)  going to be organized from 19-22 September, 2022 in Australia. There should be ‘joint management effort’(basket fund) to get wider ownership of the stakeholders.

Mr. Gehendra Gurung (Position Paper Zero Draft Producer)
The position paper is the elaborated form of official statement, conclusions of NCDRR, previous position papers, NPDRR meeting minutes, guidance of Mr. Anil Pokhrel and Mr. Pradip Koirala, NPDRR Thematic Committees and feedbacks from wider meetings. The paper included Nepal’s background, disaster scenario, COVID-19, vulnerability, multi hazard risk assessment, exposure, climate change, and loss and damages due to disaster. Similarly, paper contains major achievements on response, recovery, lesson learnt and Nepal’s progress on disaster. The paper is more about the SFDRR priorities, governance structure, DRR institution, climatic action policy and DRR financing. The paper cover about DIMS, EOC, DEOC, LEOC, CAP and other risk informed communications and about building code, DRR fund, social security, micro insurance capacity building, its focus and need in province and local level, innovative approaches and build back approaches all in inclusive nature.

GPDRR Prospective Participants
Mr. Ramesh Tuladhar and Ms. Nisha Shrestha from NSET will be sharing the voices of Global Network of Civil Society Organization (GNDR) and participating in innovative booth, side events and round table discussions.
Mr. Hasta Bahadur Sunar from Tearfund will be sharing about the emergencies and globalization.
Mr. Sajan Neupane from Mercy Corps will be participating in PEDRR side events and nature based solution- “Blue Bonds" for Ocean Preservation.
Mr. Nilkanta Pandey from CARE Nepal will be sharing about learning and networking.DR
Dr. Dharam Uprety from Practical Action will the share poster presentation about flood multi hazard system, nature based solutions, talking about loss and damages in side events and ‘tomorrow city’ about risk, climate and disaster information.
Mr. Pallav Pant from Atullya Foundation will be participating as Atullya Foundation Private Limited has been shortlisted in top 5 of ‘Sasakawa Award 2022 organization catagory’

Other Highlights

• AINTGDMCC will support financially and technically.
• The official statement will be shared by Mr. Pradip Kumar Koirala, and Mr. Anil Pokhrel, will present in some sessions of the GPDRR.
• DPNet Secretariat will update the Google calendar and create whatsapp group for the event for better coordination.

Major Comments about paper

• The progress of Nepal in global commitments, treaties and signatures should be highlighted.
• Earthquake should be showed case in outlier format and data should be shown statically. DRR Strategic Plan of Action has data of 45 years; this should be taken as baseline information. The table draft of verified data may be a better version for data showcase.
• It’s better to add PEOC and HEOC in risk information communication and dissemination.
• Cash transfer should be replaced with Cash based interventions(CBA).
• Local government’s positive responses, local level achievements, LAPA and LDCRR need to be added.
• There are many innovations such as applications related DIDRR, NTC and NCELL sending mass SMS as Early Warning Systems, other global and national innovations, INGO sector collecting the data base, DIMS should be added.
• DRR financing could be a better wording than DRR funding.
• Internal weakness should not be widely shared. The challenges should be wide and global such as challenges in reporting system, risk forecasting science tools, access to global funding in developing countries, funding to DRR channel and Himalayan crisis.
• If the solution is not in our hand, these should be included in the challenges part.
• The challenges faced during the midterm review of SFDRR should be included in challenges part.
• It will be better if the position paper is more structural, focus on language improvement and concise form.
• The way forward part should be related to challenges and capacity strengthening.

Mr. Pradip Kumar Koirala, Chief of Disaster and Conflict Management Division
The position paper is the elaborated form of official statement. The official statement has been already uploaded in GPDRR system. While participating in global platforms there should be common voice from Nepal and the achievements of Nepal should be widely shared. Would like to give thanks to all stakeholders to prepare official statement, position paper and other preparatory work. Special thanks to DPNet for wonderful coordination. As APMCDRR is approaching we must start joint management effort (basket fund) to move forward the preparatory activities. DPNet should initiate joint management effort as soon as possible to meet the deadline. As 22nd May is the final deadline to book for the 'market place and ignite stage', DPNet should apply for it officially on behalf of Nepal Team.

Mr. Anil Pokhrel, Executive Chief of NDRRMA
The position paper is not produced by every country but Nepal has taken this initiation for a long time. NPDRR along with wider stakeholders collectively supported to succeed this. COP like conferences where the sessions are more organized and various stakeholders from journalists, professionals, representatives from private sector and other government departments participate. Since everyone is focusing on global climate change, DRR platforms should also be encouraged. He thanked Mr. Gehendra Gurung for preparing the zero draft and Seven-member Committee comprising Ms. Chandani Joshi, Mr. Ram Prasad Bhandari, Mr. Dinanath Bhandai, Mr. Tulsi Prasad Dahal, Mr. Sajan Neupane, Dr. Dharam Raj Uprety and Mr. Nilkantha Pandey for drafting the position paper. He further thanked Dr. Raju Thapa, Acting Chair of DPNet and entire DPNet for coordinating and AINTGDMCC, CARE, Mercy Corps, Practical Action for the necessary financial and technical support.