Event 1 : Mountain and the City at India International Center (Delhi, 09/10Feb2017)
You can read more about the seminar here
Event 2 : IMI's 'Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS IV) at WWF (Delhi, 10/11Feb2017)
Brief writeup on Event 2
Visit IMI website here
Event 2 : IMI's 'Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS IV) at WWF (Delhi, 10/11Feb2017)
Fourth
Edition of Meet of the Mountain States held in New Delhi
10 February 2017, New Delhi : The fifth
edition of the Meet of the Mountain States organized by the Integrated Mountain
Initiative was held today at WWF India Secretariat in New Delhi. The Meet
deliberated on subjects of water security, skill development and disaster risk
reduction in the mountains. The Meet was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister of
State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju. Members of Parliament, Dr. Thokchom
Meinya (Manipur), Shri Vincent Pala (Meghalaya), Shri Jitendra Chaudhury
(Tripura), Shri. P.D. Rai (Sikkim) and former Member of Parliament Shri Tarun
Vijay were also in attendance.
The Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) is a
civil society organisation formed in 2011, aimed at redefining the architecture
of sustainable development across the 12 mountain states in the Indian
Himalayan Region, comprising 10 states
of Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland,
Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and the hill districts of West Bengal and
Assam. It is a collective initiative for recognizing the value of mountain
regions and enabling people to realise its potential by integrating the
knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholders. IMI operationalizes this
platform through its annual Sustainable Development Summits (SMDS) and Meet of
Mountain States (MoMS) by engaging different stakeholders to come together and
engage in informed debates on themes relevant to the mountain regions.
Shri Rijiju released the proceedings of
Sustainable Mountain Development Summit V held in September 2016 in Leh.
Shri Rijiju stressed on the need to work in
convergence to ensure sustainable development in the mountain regions of India.
He also highlighted the dilemmas of livelihoods in the development context and
environmental consequences of development facing the mountain cities which has
led to severe damage in valleys of Kullu and Manali and hill cities of
Mussoorie, Nainital amongst others.
As a part of the Meet, a legislators’
dialogue was also held. All Members of Parliament insisted on the need to focus
on research in mountain subjects such as glaciology, hydrology, renewable
energy, human-wildlife conflict and biodiversity.
Shri P.D. Rai also shared the path followed
by Sikkim towards sustainable development. He also mentioned that the state is
moving to build a legislation to mainstream the subject in all departments and
amongst the citizens.
The Meet was convened by Shri Alemtemshi
Jamir, President of IMI and former Chief Secretary of Nagaland. Several eminent
leaders of the development sector from organisations such as FAO (UN), NECTAR,
UNDP, NSDC, ICIMOD, SDC, WWF and senior officials from ministries and
government departments were in attendance. There was rich sharing of ideas by
the officials and the development agencies with respect to building
collaborative action plan for mountain. They emphasized the need for stronger
mountain partnerships and integration of sustainable development goals into
mountain development. Skill development emerged as one of the areas where a lot
can be done.
Dr Divya Nambiar from Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship spoke about theneed to prepare a ‘Sustainable
Skill Development Plan for Mountain States’. It was pointed out that skill
building needs to factor in the socio-cultural and geographical features of
mountains and focus on self-employment and entrepreneurship. Therefore a Sustainable
Skill Development Plan for Mountain States will come up with innovative new
ideas to scale up skill training initiatives in the region in a manner that is
responsive to local requirements and at the same time sustainable, over time.
Importantly, it must also align with theaspirations of young citizens in the
region.
Mr Shyam Khadka, Country Representative, FAO
pointed out that Information on the mountain systems is very limited and hence
establishingMountain Partnership could help generate this knowledge base which
is limited tothe mountain communities at the moment. He also highlighted the
need to fill knowledge gaps and community based solutions to problems in the
mountain states, and that IMI must work on this aspect.
Mr Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF India also emphasized
that to find solutions to the problems, communities must be integrated within
the systems aimed at finding solutions and that their voices must be integrated
into policymaking processes.
Dr Sanjiv Nair, NECTAR, pointed out that Disaster
risk reduction measures need to be community based and managed with micro
insurance at community level
Mr Brij Mohan Rathore, Country Focal Person,
ICIMOD spoke about creation of value chains for sustainable employment
opportunities and entrepreneurship through network of entrepreneursin mountain
states and trans boundary landscape programmes.
The need to focus on sustainable mountain
cities and climate change was also a recurrent theme. IMI announced that the
next Sustainable Mountain Development Summit which will be held in Sep, 2017 in
Aizawl, Mizoram will take up these issues for further deliberation.
Members’
Conclave
First IMI Members’ Conclave was held on 11
February following the Meet of the Mountain States.
Members’ Conclave was a powerful congregation
of individuals and institutions who are members of the State Forums or Chapters.
It included deliberations of issues raised by members from different states,
presentations by the state chapters where they highlighted the status of and
the activities being carried out by the chapters. IMI’s ongoing projects were discussed with
all the members and strategy for the coming years was also discussed.
Sustainable Mountain Development Summit VI to
be held in Aizawl, Mizoram was discussed with all the members. Dr. Lalbiak Ngente presented the concept of SMDS VI on behalf
of Mizoram Sustainable Development Forum. All members made suggestions and
committed to the organisation of the Summit.
Visit IMI website here
Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Kalimpong District
PS: Kalimpong has become a district w.e.f 14Feb2017
PS: Kalimpong has become a district w.e.f 14Feb2017
