A top official at India’s National Disaster Management Authority has been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as his special representative for disaster risk reduction.

Kamal Kishore (55) has been appointed as assistant secretary-general and special representative of the secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), said Stéphane Dujarric, the secretary-general’s spokesperson, at the daily press briefing on Wednesday.

Kishore, in his current position at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), holds the rank of secretary to the government of India. He succeeds Mami Mizutori of Japan at UNDRR.

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As part of India’s G20 presidency, Kishore led the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction. He also contributed to the development of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Climate Action Summit in 2019.

Kishore “brings to the position nearly three decades of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate action and sustainable development at the global, regional, national and local levels, having worked in government, the United Nations (UN) and civil society organisations”, Dujarric said.

Before joining the NDMA, Kishore spent nearly 13 years with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Geneva, New Delhi and New York. During this time, he led global advocacy to integrate disaster resilience concerns in the Sustainable Development Goals and a global team of disaster risk reduction advisors to support UNDP-programme countries, a UN statement said.

As programme advisor, he also led the development of disaster and climate risk management related elements of the UNDP Strategic Plan (2014-17).

Prior to the UNDP, he served as director of information and research and manager of the Extreme Climate Events Programme, covering Indonesia, The Philippines and Vietnam at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Bangkok from 1996 to 2002, and as an architect at The Action Research Unit for Development from 1992 to 1994 in New Delhi, where he worked on post-earthquake reconstruction projects.

Intensive field experience with The Action Research Unit for Development, where work on post-disaster reconstruction and resettlement after two major disasters — the Uttarkashi and the Latur earthquakes in 1991 and 1993, respectively — allowed him to apply his professional skills as an architect.

According to his profile on the NDMA website, Kishore has worked on disaster risk reduction and recovery issues for more than 22 years at the local, national, regional and global levels.

As UNDP’s regional advisor for South and South-West Asia, he supported more than 10 countries on a range of public policy and institutional development issues, while also advising them on the use of appropriate risk reduction tools and methodologies, it said.

Kishore has supported post-disaster recovery through strategic advice, needs assessments, programme development, and coordination after major disasters in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, The Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Kishore holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning, Land and Housing Development from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Geneva-headquartered UNDRR is the UN’s focal point for disaster risk reduction and coordinates the UN-wide implementation of the Sendai Framework, which was the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda and provides member states with concrete actions to protect development gains from the risk of disaster.