Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Monday stressed the need for cooperation and solidarity among the South Asian countries to tackle challenges of disaster management and climate change.
He pointed out the problems being experienced commonly by the entire world, but not a local level or a country while inaugurating the South Asian Conference on 'Role of local level in disaster management, reconstruction, energy and climate change' that started Monday here.
Referring to the issues as something connecting with nation development, he pointed out a significant role of local level in dealing with challenges that may surface in the way to resolve them.
The two-day conference has been organized jointly by the National Reconstruction Authority, the National Association of Rural Municipality Nepal, the Municipal Association of Nepal, the United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific and the European Union.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) Sushil Gyawali said that reconstruction task got acceleration and it became easier due to collaboration with the local-level. He also gave a special presentation on benefits of post earthquake reconstruction and its sustainability.
A total of 70 people's representatives and experts of local government from South Asian countries except Maldives and Bhutan have been participating in the conference.
On the occasion, experts from different countries put forth their views on the role of local levels on disaster management, reconstruction, energy and climate change sectors. There would be presentation of experts working in disaster management, reconstruction, energy and climate change sectors, chiefs of rural municipalities and municipalities at different session of the conference.
Chairperson of National Association of Rural Municipality in Nepal Hom Narayan Shrestha said that the conference was organized with an objective of sharing experiences on various issues including disaster and reconstruction and helping to make further strategy.
