Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa  co-chaired the High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable on “Natural Disaster and Climate Change: Managing Risks and Crises Differently” – one of the seven roundtables being organised as part of the World Humanitarian Summits being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Speaking on the occasion, Thapa shared with world leaders the experiences and lessons learned by Nepal in the process of rescue, rehabilitation, and reconstruction following the devastating earthquake that struck the country last year.

During the summit’s roundtable, DPM Thapa pointed out that putting in place effective policy, programme, strategy and institutional mechanism was a very important step towards developing a consistent framework for climate action and ensuring multi stakeholder partnership at the national, regional and international levels.

Thapa further informed the leaders in the roundtable that Nepal had a National Adaptation Plan of Action, a Local Adaptation Plan of Action, environmental and climate policies and programmes as well as Environment and Climate Change Councils at the highest level to muster political will in this area.

Emphasising the need of build back better for increased resilience at the community level to ensure quick response and avoidance of bigger losses in life and property when disasters strike, he said that the build back better called for increased financial resources, application of technology suitable to the local situation, and increased innovation.

DPM Thapa underlined the necessity of more investment on preparedness as it was important to minimize risk and damage.

The roundtable was moderated by the U N Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon who, during his remarks following the statement made by the Deputy Prime Minister, appreciated the quick response and effective coordination of the government of Nepal in the aftermath of last year’s earthquakes.

On the sidelines of the roundtable meeting, Thapa also had a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Sweden. During the meeting the matters of mutual interest, including the Swedish economic cooperation to Nepal, were discussed.