Urbanization is progressing at an unprecedented and rapid rate in Asia. A demographic switch from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban society is taking place. UN (1991) figures indicate that in 1990 only 37% of the total population of developing countries was urbanized. It is predicted that by the year 2025 the proportion will be 61%. Rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in many developing countries is already having fundamental social and environmental consequences.
Cities in India are today home to an estimated 340 million people, or 30% of total population. By 2030, existing and new cities are expected to provide shelter to 590 million people, or 40% of the population. (Already rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in many developing countries is having fundamental social and environmental consequences). It is imperative that India engages itself with the reality of its urban future and look for answers to several questions about long-term sustainability, livability and robustness of our rapidly expanding cities.
Each iteration of urban futures congress was planned and designed to bring stakeholders from various domains onto a single platform to focus on issues and challenges of urban development that need to be resolved to ensure a sustainable and equitable urban future and to take stock of emerging paradigms and technological advances that can help achieve the goal to securing an inclusive and livable urban world for future generations.
India and the region are among the highly disaster-prone geographies of the world, witnessing disasters as regular features of damage and loss events. Gaining insights and consolidating the lessons learned from previous endeavours, NIDM in collaboration with Department of Science & Technology (DST) GoI, along with partners - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), GIZ- India and others across the United Nations bodies, multi-laterals, academia, international NGOs has organised the “Resilience and Sustainability Summit: Vision 2047 (RESSUMMIT2047)”, Science-Policy-Planning-Practice Interface for DRR in Changing Climate” during 17-19 January 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, India. The RESSUMMIT 2047, a Pre-event of NPDRR 2023, has been a multi-ministerial and multi-partner initiative in which ‘High Level Plenary Sessions’ and technical ‘Colloque - Parisamvaad Sessions’ were held.
RESSUMMIT 2047 is the first ever the unique assembly of senior policy experts, scientists, managers, officials, academic, research, practice professionals, NGOs, on Resilince and Sustainability from future perspectives. Total 22 sessions including 13 plenary, 9 parisamvad colloquium were held during the summit, besides 6 pre-events. The RESSUMMIT2047 was attended by over 70 organizations, 130 speakers and total over 350 delegates. CERD appeared as a knowledge partner to this event.
CERD has conducted an impact evaluation study for the Reliance Foundation which aimed to evaluate the impact of the preparedness and response interventions, focusing on the need for various phases of disaster management carried out during many recent major disasters.
The study was based on desk review of reports, published material, questionnaire-based surveys and discussions and interviews with the key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the interventions. The final report can be downloaded here, will critically assess the work carried out by the Reliance Foundation along with its partner institutions over the last decade in the Disaster Preparedness and Response arena. This could lead to the identification of various interventions and modalities of functions by which CSR initiatives can, at large, become an effective support for the country's disaster management system. A replicable framework will be developed and followed to evaluate the impact of the interventions systematically.
6th Edition of the World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM)—a highly regarded global event that brings together professionals and experts from various fields to discuss and share knowledge about disaster management—was organised at Dehradun, capital city of Uttarakhand from 28th November to 01st December 2023. WCDM serves as a multi-stakeholder platform for exchanging ideas, strategies, and technologies in dealing with natural and man-made disasters.
Attended by government officials, policymakers, academics, NGOs, researchers, and practitioners, WCDM focused on the latest developments in disaster management, resilience, climate action and nature-based solutions. With its emphasis on innovation and evidence-based approaches, the World Congress on Disaster Management plays a crucial role in advancing scientific research and practical solutions towards minimizing the devastating impacts of disasters worldwide.
6th Edition of WCDM carried special significance as it was aligned with the Ten Point Agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) given by India’s Prime Minister. One of the priority areas of this agenda was to develop a network of universities dedicated to addressing disaster-related issues, especially in vulnerable areas such as mountain ecosystems and communities.
Centre for Environment and Regional Development (CERD) had the opportunity to support the Programme Committee of WCDM, where the organisation supported in agenda development, mobilizing international participation in the event.