The NPDRR session, to be held here on March 10, will be attended by over 1,000 distinguished guests including Union ministers, ministers of disaster management from states, parliamentarians, heads of local self-governments, heads of specialised disaster management agencies, academicians, representatives from private sector organisations, media and civil society organisations, an official statement said.

The theme of the session is “Building Local Resilience in a Changing Climate”, which is aligned with the 10-point agenda promulgated by the prime minister to build local capacities, especially in the context of a rapidly changing disaster risk scenario in the wake of climate change.

Chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah, the NPDRR is a multi-stakeholders national platform characterised by a process where all stakeholders get together to share knowledge, experiences, views and ideas, and discuss the latest developments and trends in disaster risk reduction.

It will identify gaps, make recommendations, and forge partnerships to further accelerate disaster risk reduction efforts, the statement said. The session would also help mainstream disaster management practices across ministries and departments, states and union territories, urban and rural local-self-governments, academic institutions, NGOs, CSOs, PSUs, and communities.

Jointly organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs, National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Response Force, and National Institute of Disaster Management, the NPDRR will comprise four plenary sessions, one ministerial session and eight thematic sessions.

An exclusive ministerial session, chaired by the home minister, will be held after the inaugural ceremony, where ministers from the Centre, states and union territories will deliberate on strengthening disaster risk reduction systems at various levels.

Over two days, the subject experts, practitioners, academicians and delegates will deliberate various issues on disaster risk reduction based on the SENDAI Framework and the 10-point agenda on disaster risk reduction given by the prime minister.

The event will be preceded by 19 pre-events held on a range of specific topics related to disaster risk management (like heat waves, coastal hazards, and enhancing the leadership of women in disaster risk management) in more than a dozen cities across the country over the last two months. The findings and recommendations of the 19 pre-events will feed into the session.

The 1st and 2nd sessions of the NPDRR were held in 2013 and 2017. This meeting is being held during the Amrit Kaal, and the deliberation of the session of the NPDRR will help the government in making India disaster resilient by 2030 under the Vision-2047 of the prime minister.