Moon appreciated Nepal's efforts in the aftermath of the quake

Kathmandu, May 24: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa Tuesday co-chaired the High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable on “Natural Disaster and Climate Change: Managing Risks and Crises Differently” – one of the seven roundtables being organized as part of the World Humanitarian Summit being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

DPM Thapa said that putting in place effective policy, programme, strategy and institutional mechanism was an important step towards developing a consistent framework for climate action and ensuring multi stakeholder partnership at the national, regional and international levels, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press statement.

“I would like to inform the world leaders that Nepal has a National Adaptation Plan of Action, 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 climate action,” he said.

He shared the experiences and lessons learned by Nepal in the process of rescue, rehabilitation, and reconstruction following the devastating earthquake in April and May last year.

Emphasizing 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, DPM Thapa said that the build back better called for increased financial resources, application of technology suitable to the local situation, and increased innovation.

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

“United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon appreciated the quick response and effective coordination of the Government in the aftermath of last year’s earthquakes,” read the statement.

The President of Republic of Nauru Baron Waqa, the Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia Demeke Mekonnen co-chaired the roundtable along with DPM Thapa. He was accompanied by foreign secretary Shankar Das Bairagi in the roundtable.

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

Later in the afternoon, DPM Thapa left for Israel for his two-day visit where he will have meetings with the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

DPM Thapa will also lead Nepalese delegation to the comprehensive high level mid-term review of the Istanbul Programme of Action which will be held in Antalya of Turkey from 27^th to 29^th may.

The Istanbul Programme of Action aims at enabling half of the least developed countries (LDCs) to meet the criteria for graduation from the LDC category.

DPM Thapa is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu on 30^th May.