HKH conference concludes with 11-point Action Agenda

Lalitpur, Dec. 6: The 4-day international conference on ‘Resilient Hindu-Kush Himalaya: Developing solutions towards a sustainable future of Asia’ concluded Wednesday announcing 11-point Action Agenda for a resilient HKH.

The Action Agenda includes strengthening the regional and global voice of the HKH region and its people, including youth, conducting regional awareness to action campaign, encouraging mass promotion of resilience-building technologies and solutions that are proven to be simple, affordable and replicable.

Similarly, it calls for promoting and strengthening cooperation at all levels across the HKH region through the co-creation of knowledge for resilience-building and sustainable mountain development, and building capacity at all scales of governance to facilitate resilience building.

Likewise, the conference made a voice to allocate significantly greater resources to resilience-building, including incentives for conservation of mountain ecosystem services and equitable benefit-sharing.

The Action Agenda also includes issues such as supporting the incubation of businesses, encouraging the use of information and communication technology, building short and long-term funding arrangements, and investing in mountain youth, engage and empower them.

Secretary of the Ministry of Population and Population (MoPE) Prakash Mathema said that the conference was successful in creating link between the local and global issues, and finding ways for resilience in mountains.

"This conference has been able to raise awareness on resilience solutions from mountain perspective. It has also encouraged partnership for urgent actions to combat climate change and other threats to the lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable people of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region," he said.
According to Dr. David Molden, Director General of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the conference was a success as it generated many new ideas as the solution to the mountain issues and the stakeholders have agreed to move forward with them.

He said that ICIMOD was working with the governments and private sector organisations in the HKH.

“Government’s main role is to enable people with resilience, support the private sector in enhancing their environment-friendly business and entrepreneurship, as well as to scale up necessary intervention,” said Dr. Molden.

On topics ranging from disaster risk reduction to gender equity and building social capital, all the sessions held over the past four days repeated a theme of collective action for increasing the resilience of mountain communities in the HKH, where impacts from climate change, outmigration, and dwindling natural resources pose formidable challenges.
Roland Schaefer, the German Ambassador to Nepal, said the HKH is well-positioned to harness the power of social capital in the region.

“The region has a unique brand that signifies trust, reliability, and inherent ability for planning that stems from the deep social ties of the mountain communities. This is a strong brand that should be promoted and positioned outside,” he said.
The conference also pointed towards the need of significant coordination and cooperation among HKH countries.

“HKH challenges are often transboundary and geopolitical in nature. Addressing such challenges requires transformative, inclusive and scalable actions at all governance levels,” said Rojina Manandhar, a programme officer with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.