Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a global partnership that helps developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change.  It is a grant-funding mechanism, managed by the World Bank, that supports disaster risk management projects worldwide. India has been unanimously chosen as co-chair of the Consultative Group (CG) of Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) for the fiscal year 2020.

Body:

GFDRR contributes to the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction by helping countries to integrate disaster risk management and climate change adaptation into development strategies and investment programs and recover from disasters quickly and effectively. India became a member of CG of GFDRR in 2015.

Role of GFDRR: It provides technical assistance, capacity building, and analytical work to help vulnerable nations improve resilience and reduce risk.

Objectives:

• To mainstream disaster reduction and climate change adaptation (CCA) in country development strategies, and
• To foster and strengthen global and regional cooperation among various stakeholders under the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) system.
• To help developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change.

Role played by India:

• The Consultative Group (CG) is GFDRR’s primary decision-making and advisory body.
• This is the first time that India has been provided with the opportunity of co-chairing the CG meeting of GFDRR.
• The opportunity will give India a chance to work with the member countries and organizations of GFDRR with a focused contribution towards advancing the disaster risk reduction agenda during the course of the year.
• India’s objective is to pursue a focused agenda and develop synergies with ongoing work streams of GFDRR. Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (DRI) will be a central theme of engagement with the GFDRR partners and stakeholders.

Conclusion:

India is prone to many natural disasters which has huge socio-economic impacts. The opportunity to don such a role gives India to build her capacity to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change better. India can set an example by understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and building back better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.