IIHS
announces joint programme with UNDP on Building Resilience through Integrated Development Practice
Patna: The Indian Institute for Human
Settlements (IIHS) in association with United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) is conducting a short course on Building
Resilience through Integrated
Development Practice. This is the first time in the country that such a course has been conducted. The
course focuses
on an integrated
understanding of planning interventions that reduce the vulnerability of
people, built assets and natural assets, to climate and disaster risks. The first cycle was on 18–23
November 2013, which was attended
by planners, policymakers and practitioners from the state government and other
agencies from Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The second iteration of the
course will be held from 9 to 14 December 2013 at the IIHS City Campus, Bangalore.
The course will be taught by leading international and national
experts in this field. The faculty includes Aromar Revi, Director, Indian
Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Seeta Prabhu, Former Head of UNDP’s
Human Development Resource Centre, G. Padmanabhan, Officer in Charge DM Unit,
UNDP, Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar, Gautam Bhan
and Neha Sami, Faculty at IIHS , Amir Bazaz, Faculty at Symbiosis School of
Economics (Pune).
When disasters
occur, their impact is deeper on communities and households with low
human development, impacting their ability or rate of recovery, or
exacerbating their susceptibility to risk. Current planning approaches to
development, climate change and disaster management often overlook the
magnitude of damage certain populations face because of their
continuing vulnerability. Development plans often focus on large,
infrastructure-led projects, and tend to exclude vulnerable groups from
decision-making processes. Climate change concerns are a recent addition
to the planning portfolio of state governments in India, and are yet to be
mainstreamed. The emphasis of disaster risk reduction has been on large,
relatively low frequency catastrophic events. Furthermore, small, everyday
risks are often as significant as larger, more intense events, since they
play a key role in the persistence of vulnerability.
This
course aims to equip practitioners to build resilience
through the integration of Climate Change Adaption (CCA) and Disaster Risk
Reduction (DRR) practice with a human development focus. The objective is to
design and implement CCA, DRR and development plans, policies and
programmes across different sectors and scales such that they reduce the
vulnerability of people, assets (natural and built) and businesses to climate
and disaster risks.
Application to this course is open to all interested individuals and
will be most relevant for professionals from State Governments
and Urban Local Bodies; public and private sector practitioners, NGOs and
research institutes.
About IIHS
The Indian Institute for Human Settlements
(IIHS) is a national education institution committed to the equitable,
sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements. IIHS is India’s
first prospective independently funded and managed inter-disciplinary National
University for Research and Innovation that focuses on its ongoing urban and
development transformation. It is a first-of-its-kind, practice and
innovation-oriented knowledge institution that seeks to bridge the conventional
excellence, scale and inclusion divide. For more information, see www.iihs.co.in.
