In spite of demonstrating significant resilience capacities, Bangladesh continues to remain one of the most adversely affected countries of the world due to the twin shocks of economic crises and natural disasters.
The observation came at the launching dialogue on the UNESCAP report titled “Building Resilience to Natural Disasters and Major Economic Crises” held at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital, on Saturday, 7 September 2013.
Presenting the report, Dr Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Regional Adviser on Disaster Risk Reduction at UNESCAP, Bangkok, noted that the Asia-Pacific region has been particularly hard hit in recent years due to the financial-economic crises and rising natural disasters.
The shocks emanating from natural disasters are most often not confined to one country, he observed. High commodity and fuel prices originating from economic crises particularly affects the poor and vulnerable groups of people, Dr Srivastava noted.
In putting forward policy responses in view of these crises, the report recommends that countries of the region should move towards a comprehensive risk management. The report shows how people, organisations, institutions and policymakers could work together to weave resilience into their economic, social and environment policies to enable them to better cope and deal with the attendant uncertainties.
A brief interview with Dr Sanjay Kumar Srivastava
Dr M Asaduzzaman, Former Research Director, BIDS; Dr Saleemul Huq, Director at International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD commented on the report as distinguished panellists.
Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, CPD; Mr Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Disaster, Dr Osman Farruk, former Education Minister of the Government of Bangladesh; M Syeduzzaman, CPD Board of Trustees Member and former Finance Minister; also addressed the dialogue among others.
[box title=”Downloads“]Keynote Presentation on the ESCAP Report
[Full report] Building Resilience to Natural Disasters and Major Economic Crises
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