International Convention on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI)
Recently the Prime Minister has addressed the 5th International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI).
ICDRI is an annual international conference organized by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).
Disaster-resistant infrastructure includes critical buildings, public community facilities, transit systems, telecommunications and electrical systems.
These are structures designed to withstand the effects of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or forest fires.
Importance of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure
- It can reduce the economic cost of rebuilding entire infrastructure after natural disasters.
- It helps in achieving the related goals by reducing the death rate due to disasters.
- Such infrastructure helps in uninterrupted provision of energy, transport and telecommunications for effective post-disaster response.
- The frequency and severity of disaster events is increasing. Such events make disaster-resilient infrastructure indispensable. The recent earthquake in Türkiye is an example of this.
Major initiatives towards disaster resilient infrastructure –
- India announced the formation of CDRI after the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (2016).
- The Sendai Framework (2015-2030) has been adopted for disaster risk reduction.
The Framework outlines the following four action priorities for reducing disaster risk:
- understanding disaster risk,
- Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk,
- investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and
- Enhancing disaster preparedness to “build back better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The Infrastructure Resilience Accelerator Fund was announced as a financial resource in the year 2022. This disaster-resilient infrastructure is critical to the success of the initiative. CDRI has been included in the working groups of G-20.
Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI):
- It is a global partnership of national governments, United Nations agencies and programs, the private sector, and academic and research institutions.
- It was launched by the Prime Minister of India during the United Nations Climate Action Summit (New York) in 2019.
- It promotes the resilience of infrastructure systems to withstand climate and disaster risks, thereby ensuring sustainable development.
- Membership: Currently 31 countries, 6 international organizations and 2 private sector organizations are its members. India is its member. Its headquarter is located in New Delhi.
Source – PIB
