Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General; Shri Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa; Colleagues from G20 members as well as guest countries; Officials from International Organisations; Shri Kamal Kishore, Chair of the Working Group; Colleagues from India’s National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Management Institute, and Ministry of Home Affairs, ladies and gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here with you at the third meeting of the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group. We met for the first time in Gandhinagar in March this year. Since then the world has seen some unprecedented disasters. Cities in almost the entire northern hemisphere have been in the grip of massive heat waves. The forest fires in Canada and the haze that followed affected cities in many parts of North America. Here in India, we have seen major cyclonic activity on our east and west coasts.  Delhi experienced its worst flood in 45 years!  And we are not even half way through the monsoon season!

Friends,

The impacts of climate change related disasters are no longer into the distant future. They are already here.  They are enormous. They are interconnected. And they affect everyone across the planet. The challenges that the world faces today underlines the importance of this Working Group. In a short span of four months, the Working Group has made a lot of progress and generated good momentum. However, we need to do more. The ambition of this Working Group must match the scale of problems we face. The time for incremental change has passed. We need transformation of local, national and global systems for preventing the creation of new disaster risks and effectively managing existing disaster risks. It is a fact that disparate national and global efforts actively seek convergence so as to maximize their collective impact.  We cannot afford fragmented efforts that are driven by narrow institutional perspectives. We must be driven by a problem solving approach.

The UN Secretary General’s “Early Warning For All” initiative is an example of this approach. It is good to note that G20 has identified “Early Warning and Early Action” as one of the five priorities and putting its full weight behind it. In the area of financing disaster risk reduction, it is important that we pursue structured mechanisms at all levels for financing all aspects of disaster risk reduction. Over the last few years, In India we have completely transformed the way disaster risk reduction is financed. We now have a predictable mechanism for financing not just disaster response but also disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery. Can we have analogous arrangements at the global level as well? We need to pursue greater convergence between various streams of financing available for disaster risk reduction. Climate Finance has to be an integral part of financing for disaster risk reduction. Mobilizing private finance for disaster risk reduction has been a challenge, but without it we will not be able to go very far in addressing all the disaster risk reduction needs. What kind of enabling environment should the governments create to attract private finance into disaster risk reduction? How can G20 generate momentum around this area and ensure that private investment in disaster risk reduction is not only an expression of corporate social responsibility but part of the core business of firms?

In the area of disaster resilient infrastructure, we are already seeing the benefits of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure we established in partnerships with a number of G20 nations, the UN, and others a few years ago. The Coalition’s work is informing how countries – including Small Island Developing Countries – can use better risk assessments and metrics to upgrade their standards and make more risk-informed investments in infrastructure development. It is important that we work towards taking these ideas to scale! We have to think beyond pilots and design our initiatives for scale. On “Building Back Better” after disasters there has been much practical experience over the last few years, but we have to find ways to institutionalize some of the good practices. Like “preparedness for response” we need to have emphasis on “preparedness for recovery” underpinned by financial arrangements, institutional mechanisms, and capacities.

Friends,

I am happy to note that in all the five priorities pursued by the Working Group, there has been significant progress on all the deliverables. I have seen the zero draft of the Communique that you are going to discuss over the next few days.  It puts forward a very clear and strategic agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction for the G20 nations. I hope that the spirit of convergence, consensus, and co-creation that has permeated the deliberations of this Working Group over the last four months will prevail over the next three days and beyond.

We are grateful for the sustained support we have received from our knowledge partners in this endeavor. I am particularly appreciative of the personal engagement of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Ms Mami Mizutori in supporting the work of this group. We are also very pleased with the engagement of the TROIKA in shaping the agenda of this Working Group. We have built on the foundations laid by earlier presidencies including Indonesia, Japan and Mexico, and we are delighted that Brazil will take this forward. We are particularly delighted to welcome Secretary Wolnei from Brazil to this meeting. We want to assure Secretary Wolnei and his team that you will have our full support and engagement as we move forward.

During the last eight months of India’s G20 Presidency, the whole nation has participated very enthusiastically.  So far 177 meetings have been held in 56 locations across the country.  Delegates from various countries have actively participated in the deliberations.  They also have had a glimpse of India’s social, cultural and natural variety. Much progress has been made in the substantive aspects of the G20 agenda.  I am sure the Summit Meeting which will be held in one and half months’ time will be a landmark event.  The contribution of all of you to this outcome will be significant.

I wish you all the very best for your deliberations over the coming days to ensure that G20 delivers a meaningful outcome on disaster risk reduction for the world.

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