Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 11: A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Disaster Management Centre (DMC), University of Jammu and All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), Ahmadabad with the objective of capacity building for disaster risk reduction.
The MoU was signed by Prof S K Pandita, Director, DMC and Vandana Chauhan from AIDMI, in presence of Prof M P S Ishar, Vice-Chancellor, JU.
AIDMI is a Gujrat based registered NGO working in five States of India and in three countries of the region. It is a community-based action research, action planning and action advocacy organization. It works towards bridging the gap between policy, practice and research related to disaster risk mitigation.
As an operational as well as learning organization, it has the ability to link local communities to the national and international level of relief and long-term recovery policies and studies and vice versa.
The Disaster Management Centre (DMC), JU was established in 2006 with the mandate to impart education, provide training and develop skilled manpower in Disaster Management and conduct research on natural hazards.
AIDMI and DMC will jointly form a Core Committee for planning and monitoring.
Under this MoU, DMC and AIDMI have jointly, decided to launch an Action Research Policy Initiative (ARPI) to enhance the impact of risk mitigation efforts across India in general and Jammu and Kashmir in particular.
The ARPI will aim to identify, develop and mainstream disaster risk reduction initiatives through action-research policy work in disaster prone states of India and capture, document, and disseminate vulnerability reduction measures across communities and Governments. The main purpose of these activities is education and the focus will be on the poorest of the poor of India.