Community At the Heart of Resilience

Caritas Member Organizations in Asia participated in the last Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 3 – 6 July 2018. 

 

The three-day Conference attracted 3,500 people to the Mongolian capital from over 1,500 organizations including representatives from more than 50 countries. At the opening ceremony, Prime Minister of Mongolia, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, issued a powerful call for the countries of the region to work together to reduce disaster losses. “The pursuit of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is a clear necessity for this region,”he said.[1].

Caritas was represented by Caritas India, Caritas Bangladesh, Caritas Nepal, KMSS-Caritas Myanmar and Caritas Mongolia, as well as CRS of Bangladesh and Nepal offices, with support from KARINA, Caritas Germany, Caritas Australia and Caritas Internationalis. 

Our participation aimed to showcase Caritas’ work in building community resilience against disaster risks in the region through presentations of Community Engagement in Building Back Better (India), A Guide For Practitioners and an example of Facilitating Community-led Disaster Risk Management (DRM) planning (Bangladesh) as well as Experience and Challenges of Dzud Response (Mongolia) during the Side Event, Market Place and Ignite Stage sessions respectively. 

Father Pierrot Kasemuana, Executive Director of Caritas Mongolia, stated that this event is very strategic and served as an opportunity to put Mongolia on “the map of disaster risk reduction” efforts in the region. Caritas confederation, represented by Father Pierrot Kasemuana, strongly called for a global approach to address the root cause during the Official Statement session, “Building back better will remain ineffective and inefficient unless there is a global approach of integral human development in addressing the root causes of the ecological and environmental problems which are political in nature, strongly influencing the humanitarian situation”. 

The conference was officially closed on 6 July 2018 with a shared commitment from all attendants to contribute to the implementation of Sendai Framework. 

Find out more about the conference in general here. For Caritas documents click here or visit our Facebook page and twitter account. 

 

[1]UNISDR, 6 July 2018