25 April 2019, Kathmandu
The 5th Asian Broadcasting Union Summit on Climate Action and Disaster Preparedness began here today. ‘Media Solutions for Sustainable Future-Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities’ is the major theme of the conference hosted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Inaugurating the summit, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Banskota said talking about natural disaster media are always there in the forefront of any effort with tremendous power to influence and aware people in all phases of disaster management, from mitigation to recovery. In this regard, he cited the example of Radio Nepal, playing a lead role by running emergency broadcasting round the clock saving many lives through lifeline communications and livesaving broadcasting, in the immediate aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake.
He expressed the belief that the media summit would be a milestone for media professionals from various media organisation in the region to learn about effective and responsible media coverage from each other’s best practices and experiences. “I strongly believe the ideas, thoughts and experiences you share in this gathering will help to find out a way to minimize the effects of climate change and to strengthen the disaster preparedness,” Minister Banskota added.
Media professionals, disaster management experts, policy makers, intellectuals and academicians from the Asia Pacific region are taking part in the event co-organized by the ABU, Nepal Television and Radio Nepal. The summit features deliberations and break away sessions on various topics including climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, communications challenges and solutions, science and ICT tools for climate change mitigation, Building knowledgeable, Resilient Communities, preparing people for disaster.
The event will end with the adoption of a Kathmandu Action Plan including the measures to be taken for disaster risk mitigation based on the recommendations and experiences shared in course of the two-day summit.
