Following is the text of the Declaration of the First
Ministerial Conference on Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning
System (RIMES):
“We, the Ministers, and Representatives
from the Governments, responsible for Building Multi-Hazard Early
Warning Systems and Senior Officials from Member States and
Collaborating Countries of the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early
Warning System (RIMES), consisting of Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Cambodia, Comoros, India, Kenya, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mauritius,
Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Papua New Guinea,
Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uzbekistan met in New Delhi on 21
June 2012, to resolve to build and sustain RIMES institutional and core
operational activities through voluntary country contributions and
mobilize financial support for implementation of the targeted activities
of the RIMES Master Plan:
Welcome the evolution and development
of RIMES technical cooperation platform to appropriately address the
needs and demands of the Member States and Collaborating Countries in
building technical capacity development in respect of generation and
application of early warning and decision support information to reduce
impacts of natural disasters;
Note and Appreciate the vital
contribution of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) for establishing, institutionalizing and
supporting the regional early warning arrangements at RIMES through
funding support from the ESCAP Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disasters and
Climate Preparedness with support from Thailand and Sweden
Also
Note and Appreciate the funding support provided by the Danish
International Development Agency (DANIDA) for establishment of a
high-performance computing facility at RIMES Program Unit, Pathumthani,
Thailand to support research and development efforts of member states
to improve hydro-meteorological forecast products to provide improved
early warning services;
Welcome and Appreciate the key role
played by H.E Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, the President of Republic of
Maldives in his capacity as Chair of the Presidential Task Force for
marshalling Maldives RIMES Secretariat through his vast experience and
profound wisdom, and also transforming RIMES into an international and
inter-governmental institution, and by laying a solid foundation for its
sustained growth;
Recognize and Appreciate the extremely
valuable role of Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Chairman, Earth Commission and
Earth System Science Organization; Secretary, Ministry of Earth
Sciences, Government of India, in his capacity as Chairman of RIMES
Council for guiding the RIMES programs to fulfill the immediate and
priority needs of the RIMES Council Members, and as Chairman of RIMES
Executive Board in evolving the RIMES Master plan through an exhaustive
consultative mechanism;
Recognize and Appreciate the generous
support extended by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather
Forecasts (ECMWF), U. K. for signing the agreement with RIMES in respect
of utilizing forecast products for building multi-hazard early warning
programmes for RIMES member states with improved lead times;
Appreciate
the significant contributions of the first RIMES Secretariat in
Maldives for RIMES institutional development and its consolidation and
expansion, and continuing to provide services for the on-going programs
Appreciate
the significant contributions of the RIMES Secretariat in Mongolia for
its efforts particularly to expand RIMES membership to East Asian and
Central Asian countries;
Recognize and Appreciate the
contributions of Government of Thailand in extending vital support to
operations of RIMES Early Warning Facility and RIMES Program Unit;
Recognize
and Appreciate the highly commendable efforts of the RIMES Program Unit
for sustaining its core operations, despite being impacted by severe
and prolonged flooding of Bangkok, by relocating the Early Warning
Facility to a safe alternative location;
Greatly Appreciate the
support of Government of India for providing computing resources to
offset loss of RIMES’s High Performance Computing (HPC) facility due to
Thailand Floods to enable RIMES to continue to provide uninterrupted
services to its Member States; and access to forecast products from
NCMRWF, and readiness of India Institutions- IMD, INCOIS and NCMRWF to
expand the scope of capacity development and value added Early Warning
products through RIMES.
Greatly Appreciate the Government of
Bangladesh effort to institutionalize an innovative program to upgrade
early warning system with scientific and technical forecast tools and
management practices with technical support from RIMES through the
Climate Resilient Fund of Government of Bangladesh and acknowledge the
contribution of Government of Bangladesh of US $ Four Million for this
purpose, and,
Commend this initiative of Government of Bangladesh as an innovative institutional model to be replicated by RIMES Member States
Appreciate
Government of Mozambique initiative to establish collaborative linkage
between RIMES and Meteorological Association of Southern Africa (MASA)
Decide
to provide sustained support and commitment as appropriate to
strengthen RIMES core and prioritized programs under Master Plan;
Noted the readiness of Government of Seychelles to host the Indo-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting;
Fully
Recognize the Government of India’s commitment as RIMES Council Chair
and agree for India to continue to Chair RIMES Council;
Request
RIMES to collaborate with Indian Ocean Commission and African Centre of
Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) for generation and
application of seasonal forecast in the region;
Decide to evolve a
financial mechanism as appropriate to enable RIMES to realize its full
potential. For this purpose a sub-group of Ministers could be
constituted with appropriate terms of reference to recommend such
financial mechanism;
Welcome Government of India’s active consideration to financially support prioritized projects of the RIMES Master Plan;
Recommend
and Request financial support from international donor agencies, in
particular to enable UN-ESCAP to expand scope of Regional Tsunami and
Climate Trust Fund to build programs identified in the RIMES Master
Plan, and RIMES Member and Collaborating States for mobilization of
funds for the full and successful implementation of the RIMES Master
Plan to translate the envisaged efforts for building country-specific
actions;
Invite and Call for convening of First RIMES Donors’
Conference during the course of 2012 to seek global donor agencies
support towards strengthening early warning arrangements for most
vulnerable and least developed RIMES Member and Collaborating States;
Encourage
RIMES Collaborating Countries- Afghanistan, Armenia, Bhutan, China,
Kenya, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, Somalia, Tanzania, Thailand,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam to accelerate their respective government level
approvals so as to enable them to sign RIMES Cooperation Agreement at
the earliest convenience.” (PIB) 21-June-2012 19:27 IST
