Mangaluru doctor to address UN Regional Meeting in Thailand

Dr Edmond Fernandes, the founder and CEO of the Center for Health and Development (CHD) Group and also a guest faculty at the Department of Public Health, Nitte University has been invited as a resource person to address the regional forum on translating global frameworks into practice.

This is being organised by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in collaboration with other global independent bodies like the GIZ, IFRC, ADPC and UNDP.

A release said that Asian countries are being brought together into this dialogue on what is said to be the way forward to optimise and translate global policies into grass-root actions.

Dr Edmond Fernandes will be deliberating on how frameworks on disaster risk reduction can be strengthened by mainstreaming health in all policies across different sectors and agencies.

He will also be highlighting the path of South cooperation at the ASEAN level which will help create a new world order to strengthen international development and achieve disaster resilience and bring meaningful climate change adaptation practices.

Different countries will also share their experience and methods of handling a disaster response and share the best practices at this Asia level dialogue.

The coherence approach is emphasised in the various global, regional and national frameworks pertaining to disaster risk reduction and the United Nations member States in Asia and the Pacific have called for enhancing regional co-operation to build resilience to disasters in the region.

Besides, Dr Edmond Fernandes will be holding parallel meetings with Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University and other Institutes in Thailand to further the public health agenda for Asia.

The three landmark frameworks- the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, have all called upon member States to mainstream disaster resilience in the context of sustainable development.

The role of local governments in decentralising the risk informed development and adapting the global agendas to local milieu and constraints involved in doing so is in the process of being fully operationalised, Dr Edmond said.

Dr Fernandes is also a member of Health Task Force, DDMA, Government of Karnataka.