{"id":2236,"date":"2025-06-11T12:17:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:17:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:17:01","slug":"initiative-aims-to-build-permanent-capacity-and-increase-access-to-investment-and-training-to-save-lives-and-protect-infrastructure-in-vulnerable-mountain-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/initiative-aims-to-build-permanent-capacity-and-increase-access-to-investment-and-training-to-save-lives-and-protect-infrastructure-in-vulnerable-mountain-range\/","title":{"rendered":"Initiative aims to build permanent capacity and increase access to investment and training to save lives and protect infrastructure in vulnerable mountain range"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kathmandu, Nepal: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed ICIMOD to act as one of three technical implementing partners in a major initiative designed to transform climate and disaster risk reduction in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

ADB\u2019s\u00a0Building Adaptation and Resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalayas\u00a0(BARHKH)\u00a0initiative, launched in December 2023, with a total of\u00a0$6.52 million\u00a0funding for its first phase,\u00a0$450,000 of which goes to ICIMOD, seeks to reduce the human and economic risks from the rising intensity and number of climate-induced mountain hazards in the region,\u00a0including floods, landslides, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).<\/p>\n

Switzerland, through the Regional Climate Action Partnership in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, has contributed CHF 2 million ($2.4M) to the BARHKH initiative. In addition, Switzerland is bringing in its decades-long\u00a0expertise\u00a0in climate change and disaster risk management through a range of Swiss institutions, including those from the private sector and academia. This collaboration aims to build on global knowledge and enhance regional\u00a0capacity.<\/p>\n

The initiative also\u00a0seeks\u00a0to cut the costs of disaster risk reduction for individual governments, promote climate resilient investments, and strengthen community resilience by developing shared data, systems on multi-hazard risks and multi hazard early warning systems, and with improved access to training,\u00a0knowledge\u00a0and finance.<\/p>\n

The initiative sets out to build permanent regional\u00a0capacity\u00a0in interventions that address a spectrum of hazards, from floods, debris flows, landslides, glacial lake outburst floods to\u00a0permafrost thawing.<\/p>\n

Interventions will range from\u00a0identifying\u00a0disaster hotspots, reducing exposure, by using multi-hazard risk assessment to inform climate resilient investments, to ramping up early warning for\u00a0early action, building impact-resistant infrastructure, insurance solutions, and increasing the effectiveness of operations,\u00a0maintenance\u00a0and finance plans.<\/p>\n

In its first phase, which runs till\u00a0October\u00a02028, BARHKH focuses on Bhutan and Nepal. Phase two will focus on operationalisation, and scaling the initiative to\u00a0additional\u00a0countries, and sectors in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur warming world is unleashing devastating hazards in our mountains.\u00a0\u00a0Even advanced economies are being stretched \u2013 we must act now to scale proven solutions across the\u00a0HKH\u00a0and we hugely applaud ADB for this initiative,\u201d states Saswata Sanyal, Disaster Risk Reduction Lead at ICIMOD and Project Coordinator for BARHKH for ICIMOD.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe escalating costs of disaster management and mitigation make it imperative for agencies and governments within and beyond our region to come together like never before \u2013\u202fto ensure as many people and sectors as\u00a0possible benefit\u00a0from the best innovations and systems and techniques, at the lowest cost.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0delighted to be among the technical advisers whose insights will advance disaster management and lower risk in this region.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICIMOD\u2019s participation in this\u00a0project was confirmed\u00a0just days\u00a0ahead of the opening of the Global\u00a0Platform for Disaster\u202fRisk Reduction (GPDRR),\u00a0the key fora for\u00a0disaster risk experts to share\u00a0knowledge,\u00a0discuss\u00a0development and trends. This\u00a0year\u2019s event, which closes tomorrow (6 June)\u00a0is\u00a0hosted by the Government of Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMountain communities around the world, from the Alps to the Andes and the Himalayas, are threatened by increasing intensity and frequency of mountain-related hazards. Their lives, ways of life, culture, and heritage are all threatened,\u201d the\u00a0UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction wrote in a statement in response to the glacier landslide which struck Switzerland last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tragedy could have been much worse if not for the quick actions of Swiss authorities, who provided early warning to the village\u2019s residents and evacuated them, and their livestock, days ago. This is a testament to the power of disaster risk reduction in reducing loss of life and protecting livelihoods. Over the decades, the\u202fSwiss have developed significant\u00a0expertise\u00a0in managing mountain-related disaster risks and have been generously sharing it with countries across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the hazard pattern changing so significantly with temperature rise, disaster management in the HKH is not yet where it needs to be,\u201d said Declan Magee, Principal Economist and Team Leader BARHKH for ADB. \u201cHuge knowledge exists in this region, and beyond it. This is a first crucial step towards pooling that knowledge base and technical\u00a0expertise,\u00a0building the\u00a0appropriate capacity\u00a0and\u00a0leveraging\u00a0the right investment\u00a0and planning guidance to save lives, and safeguard economic development.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICIMOD is at GPDRR, selected among organisations globally to present on the Community-Based Flood Early Warning System, which is presently implemented across 15 sites including sites with transboundary rivers where the organisation specialises flood warning efforts.<\/p>\n

Among other solutions, Early Warning Systems are expected to be inform pre- and post-hazard efforts especially in a geography where the nature and intensity of hazards is becoming\u00a0more and more\u00a0erratic.<\/p>\n

As well as the technical and financial investment for the BARHKH initiative, Switzerland also supports ICIMOD\u2019s cryosphere-related work and provides core funding for several initiatives across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region\u2014enabling research, monitoring, and capacity building to strengthen the HKH as a regional knowledge hub on cryospheric issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed ICIMOD as a technical partner for its Building Adaptation and Resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalayas (BARHKH) initiative, launched in December 2023. With $6.52 million in funding, the initiative aims to reduce climate-induced hazards such as floods and landslides in Bhutan and Nepal. Switzerland contributes CHF 2 million and shares its expertise in disaster risk management. The project seeks to strengthen regional resilience, enhance early warning systems, and reduce disaster risks by building capacity and promoting climate-resilient investments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[900,901,840,902,836,903,908,911,883,884,905,907,904,906,910,909,260,188],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}