As part of the Indian G20 Presidency, he led the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction.
United Nations:
A top official from India’s National Disaster Management Authority has been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his special representative for disaster risk reduction.
Kamal Kishore, 55, has been appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General. , Wednesday during the daily press conference.
Kishore, in his current position at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), holds the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. He succeeds Mami Mizutori from Japan at UNDRR.
As part of India’s G20 chairmanship, Kishore led the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction. He also contributed to the development of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Climate Action Summit in 2019.
Kishore “brings nearly three decades of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate action and sustainable development at global, regional, national and local levels, having worked in government, the United Nations (UN) and civil society organizations,” Dujarric said.
Before joining the NDMA, Kishore worked at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Geneva, New Delhi and New York for almost thirteen years. During this time, he led global advocacy efforts to integrate disaster resilience concerns into the Sustainable Development Goals and led a global team of disaster risk reduction advisors to support UNDP program countries, a UN statement said.
As a program advisor, he also led the development of disaster and climate risk management-related elements of the UNDP Strategic Plan (2014-17).
Before UNDP, he served as director of information and research and manager of the Extreme Climate Events Program covering Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in Bangkok from 1996 to 2002, and as an architect at The Action Research. Unit for Development from 1992 to 1994 in New Delhi, where he worked on post-earthquake reconstruction projects.
Intensive field experience at the Action Research Unit for Development, where his work on reconstruction and resettlement after two major disasters – the 1991 and 1993 Uttarkashi and Latur earthquakes respectively – allowed him to apply his professional skills as an architect.
According to his profile on the NDMA website, Kishore has worked on disaster risk reduction and recovery issues at local, national, regional and global levels for over 22 years.
As UNDP Regional Advisor for South and Southwest Asia, he supported more than ten countries on a range of public policy and institutional development issues, while also advising them on the use of appropriate risk reduction tools and methodologies, said the report.
Kishore has supported disaster recovery through strategic advice, needs assessments, program development and coordination following major disasters in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Kishore holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning, Land and Housing Development from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
The Geneva-based UNDRR is the UN focal point for disaster risk reduction and coordinates the UN-wide implementation of the Sendai Framework, which was the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda and provides Member States with concrete actions to protect development gains against the risk of disaster.
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