2019 – Posted in: Daily News

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union

For: Preliminary; Mains
Topics Covered: Significance of summit, Themes, Objectives, Kathmandu Media Action Plan

News Flash

5th Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Media Summit on Climate Action and Disaster Preparedness was held in Kathmandu, Nepal. According to Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the summit was attended by over 200 participants including political leaders, representatives of UN agencies and NGOs, experts for climate change and disaster management, scientists and media persons.

Theme

“Media Solutions for Sustainable Future: Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities”.

Objective

The basic objective of the summit is to address the issue of fully utilizing media’s potential of accelerating climate action and disaster preparedness and connect stakeholders to media professionals for collaboration and joint practical projects.

Highlight

Kathmandu Media Action Plan for Media Integration in Climate Action and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) was adopted at summit. It also included a comprehensive session on Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Kathmandu Media Action Plan

It will be included in Global Platform for DRR to be held in Geneva, 15 – 17 May 2019. The Media Action Plan lists concrete steps for fully involving media in saving lives and livelihoods. The Plan suggests a comprehensive investment in broadcasters’ networks to make them resilient to hazards, and also recommends capacity building for journalists to be able to prepare their audiences for future disasters.

Disaster risk reduction

It is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them.