the 36th meeting of Disasters management webinar series was held

According to the public relations office of the Natural Disasters Research Institute (NDRI), the 36th meeting of Disasters management webinar series on the commemoration of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction with the theme "Fighting Inequality for a Resilient Future" was held by the NDRI and the UNESCO Chair on Natural Disasters Management with the presence of a group of Officials, professors and those interested in this field in-person and online and with the presence of Golda El-Khoury, director of the UNESCO Office in Tehran, Lalini Veerasamy, Chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iran, Letizia Rossano, director of the Asia and Pacific Center for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM), Nejad Jahani Deputy head of NDMO, Osamu Tanaka, Chief representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office in Iran, Venco Elisabetta Maria, Research fellow at the University of Pavia, Italy, Esfandiar Zebardast, professor at the Tehran University, Hafez Keypour, professor at Istanbul Aydin University, Masoud Hamedani, director of the International Department at the NDRI, Hiroki Nishi, head of the department Economic Cooperation of the Japanese Embassy in Iran, South Korean Deputy Ambassador Kim Joon, Gulbahor Nematova and Mr. Alireza Mohammadi, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Adi Mohammad, Indonesian Embassy, Helnaz Pourian, Director of Humanitarian Affairs of the UNFPA, Julia Flore, Head of the Commercial Department of the Italian Embassy, Mohammad Aftab, the Embassy of Pakistan and representative of UNOCHA.

At the beginning of this meeting, Seyed Amirhossein Garakani, head of the Natural Disasters Research Institute (NDRI) and UNESCO Chair on Natural Disasters Research Institute, while celebrating the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and welcoming the attendees, acknowledged the topic of this year's International Day meeting: We cannot talk about disaster risk reduction without talk about inequality.

He added: Disasters are an increasing threat to sustainable development. Evidence suggests that disaster risks are rising at a rate that significantly outstrips progress in building resilience.

Garakani stated: We must seize this moment to transform how we view and manage risks.

Together, through solidarity and partnerships, we can tackle the common risks that threaten us.

He emphasized that since 2004, the Natural Disasters Research Institute (NDRI) has addressed two goals:
1. Development and promotion of research in the field of natural disasters
2. Promoting the relevant research activities

The NDRI has worked on drafting 23 documents, including the National Disaster Management Strategy, plans for national risk reduction, preparedness and response, reconstruction, and rehabilitation. Besides, more than 1420 disaster-prone villages were identified in 31 provinces of Iran by the NDRI and we gathered all of the data into an integrated system.

The head of the NDRI acknowledged that we must move from comprehensive disaster risk management to integrated management.

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In the end, as the Secretary of the National Platform of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Disaster Risk Reduction, I firmly believe we could achieve risk-informed sustainable development through a strategic and whole-of-society approach.

Nejad Jahani, deputy Head of the National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO), stated: that resilience includes concepts such as justice, efficiency, adaptability, flexibility, and environmental quality, which ultimately lead to sustainable development.
He said that from a disaster management point of view, resilience includes readiness, reaction, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and prevention. This approach focuses on reducing risk and improving resilience while creating emergency reaction capabilities and effective rehabilitation. This cycle is mostly used to check vulnerability.

The deputy head of the NDMO mentioned that today drought, desertification, climate change, and flood threaten many societies. Therefore, we must try to take basic steps to reduce poverty and distrust.

Jahani added: The Islamic Republic of Iran, is one of the most committed countries in international obligations, in addition to extensive cooperation with international agencies in various fields, especially about natural hazards, including cooperation and implementation and fulfillment of Sendai Framework, as well as in other humanitarian activities. In its national policy system, as the propulsion of development thinking, about two decades ago, it witnessed the announcement of macro policies for prevention and reduction of risks from the supreme leader.

Nejad Jahani emphasized that following this trajectory, after the adoption of the country's disaster management law through the National Strategy Document, the National Risk Prevention and Reduction Plan, Preparation and Response, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, Comprehensive Education Plan, National Media Document, and Mandatory annexing of DRR for Development Plans and the National Natural Hazards Risk Atlas have taken the specific executive terminology in the approach of natural hazards risk management, which is hoped to interact with other countries and international agencies, especially in the central and West Asian region. In this way, we are ready to interact with all committed countries and institutions in the region.

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The year 2023 showed that we should have a resilience plan against disasters.
Golda El-Khoury, director of the UNESCO office in Tehran, said: It is necessary for the world and the people of the society to pay attention to dealing with natural disasters, and 2023 showed that it should be in to have resilience and coping plan against disasters.
She emphasized that the warming of the summer season, the earthquake in Morocco, the flood in Siberia, the earthquake in Afghanistan, and the terrible storms were among the most important natural disasters in the world, which unfortunately killed more than 2 thousand people and injured 1500 people in Afghanistan a few days ago.

The director of UNESCO in Tehran stated: All human societies should contribute to resilience in the world and reduce the damage caused by natural disasters, and in this regard, UNESCO can be a bridge between people and active global, regional, and extra-regional centers.
She said: that UNESCO is always trying to strengthen its cooperation during natural disasters in different parts of the world.
UNESCO is ready to develop its cooperation with the cooperation of all those involved in crisis management in Iran and all countries of the world so that we can use this good capacity to reduce natural disaster risks in the world and we can help human societies.

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The existence of information and data on disasters will allow us to deal well with natural disasters.

Letizia Rossano, director of the Asia and Pacific Center for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) said: that although this center has always achieved many successes in the field of risk reduction over the past years, natural disasters always threaten human societies.

She said: This center is always trying to reduce the risk of disasters in different countries by participating in efforts because according to the global motto of fighting inequality for a resilient future, we should always try to reduce the risk of natural disasters.
The director of the APDIM emphasized the greater synergy of human societies in the event of natural disasters and said: that the existence of data on disasters will allow us to deal with natural disasters well.

Rossano emphasized: that climate change and desertification are some of the basic problems of the world, and the most important thing is that when we follow policies to reduce the risk of events, we will hope to be able to reduce the damages of disasters in the world.

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All the people of the world have a common commitment to deal with natural disasters and the resilience of human societies.

In the continuation of this meeting, Lalini Veerasamy, Chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iran, stated: International Organizations for Migration cooperate with their member countries and partners to be able to support immigrants during displacement in some countries of the world.

The chief of the International Organization for Migration said: Fortunately, in 2022, this organization was able to provide necessary immigration services to 963 thousand immigrants in 63 countries.

She said: Migration is one of the agendas of natural disasters and calamities that cause many people to migrate, and in this context, we are trying to support our immigrants in the member countries.

She mentioned that the management of migrations for safe movement, providing suitable solutions for migrants to reduce possible, damages, and providing suitable solutions for migrants to reduce the effects of unsafe migration are the 3 big goals of this center in the world.

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To increase our resilience, we must take the necessary measures in the form of social institutions and governance.

Venco Elisabetta Maria, Research Fellow at Pavia University, Italy, emphasized: We know that risks and accidents in the world are always increasing, and the occurrence of natural disasters also has many components in different countries of the world.

She said: Many settlements of the communities are always exposed to danger and risk and we should be able to improve the resilience of these settlements by providing appropriate solutions.

She stated that to increase resilience, we must take the necessary measures in the form of social institutions and governance and reminded us: When we talk about social resilience, economic resilience is also placed next to people and human societies.

The professor of Pavia University, Italy, pointing out that currently 7 riverbeds in Italy always lead to floods in this country, added: Some of these rivers are located in densely populated urban areas, and in the past, floods caused a lot of material and human damage.

She emphasized: In this regard, in 2007, the Italian government, by approving guidelines, gave serious attention to necessary measures to deal with floods and preserve places and social and economic activities in this country.

This professor of Pavia University, Italy, stated: In these guidelines, reconstruction and post-flood evaluations were analyzed so that we can examine the causes of flooding based on different scenarios.

Venco emphasized that we must have the necessary cooperation to deal with natural disasters and make good use of each other's capacities so that we can manage natural disasters well.

In this meeting, Professor Esfandiar Zebardast emphasized the importance of resilience in urban areas and said: Urbanization is an inevitable phenomenon, but climate change has caused our cities and settlements to be threatened by natural disasters.

He stated: Unfortunately, we witness natural disasters every day in the corner of the world, and the latest one is the earthquake in Afghanistan, which unfortunately caused many casualties.

Saying that resilience is at the forefront of the order of human societies. In this regard, we must be able to take the necessary measures to reduce the risk of accidents in all countries of the world within a specific framework.

The professor of Tehran University stated: It is very necessary to increase efforts to improve urban resilience, and fortunately, several cities in Iran have joined this process. He said: urban resilience is the ability of an urban system in temporal and spatial dimensions to return functions in time to face possible disturbances.

He said strongly: The ability of cities and regions to change and return to the previous state is one of the most important advantages of cities' resilience.

In the end, he emphasized: that creating absorption capacities and endurance by using ecological, economic, and social structures, and gaining experience and knowledge are other advantages of urban resilience.

Masoud Hamedani, Director of the International Department at the NDRI emphasizes United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-2027 was developed jointly between the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United Nations System to reflect and support the national development goals and strategies. It has 5 pillars including Disaster Risk Reduction and Management which would help integrate disaster risk reduction into development plans and programs.

The draft results matrix of this pillar of the UNSDCF was prepared after several meetings with the relevant members of the government and the United Nation agencies over 2 years and the framework finally was signed in November 2022.

Hamedani mentioned that in the Disaster Management Law which was ratified in 2019, the NDMO has been given a more strategic role in coordinating and supporting disaster management and risk reduction.

It is worth mentioning that the participants who have attended at least half of the meeting in this webinar will be given a certificate of attendance. Certificates of this meeting will be issued electronically and sent to the email addresses of the participants.