Patna, Sep 3 : ‘Climate change has adversely impacted agriculture in Bihar that further accelerated the pace of out migration in recent times was the key observation of experts while participating in the Global programme on food security and social inclusion on Thursday.
The Forum for Social Initiatives in association with Bihar Water Development Society, Patna organized a state level Workshop on Dialogue and Relationship building workshop with Government and other humanitarian agencies under the Global Programme.
This initiative was recently launched in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam with an aim to address Climate Change and Food security.
While Inaugurating the workshop, Director Fr. James Shekhar explained the background of the organization and social development programmes by the Bihar regional forum. He lauded the work of Government during Covid pandemic and expressed his satisfaction on the associated work done by the Media and NGOs.
Abhishek Kumar from Caritas India resented the objective of the Global Programme aimed at micro, meso and macro level towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related with Climate Change, food security and Social inclusion of the vulnerable population in Bihar state.
The workshop was addressed by Mr. Neeraj Kumar, Sr. Consultant BSDMA. He detailed about the various initiatives taken by BSDMA. He said that BSDMA and Government is doing all the effort, preparing SOPs and capacity building trainings for the personnel involved, Panchayats and community also. The awareness and skill development trainings of task forces volunteers are seen as great use. He reminded how the Lightening has affected in last two years and only in 2020, human casualties were around 459. So, we need to work in coordination to minimize the risks during disasters.
Rakesh Tiwary, a faculty, A.N SINHA institute Patna focused on key social dimensions and impact of Climate change on food security. Tiwary talked about the role of NGOs that goes beyond the coordination, and to the extent of innovative ways to address the migration vs needs vs empowerment.
From Save the Children and Oxfam Mukul and Chandan enlightened the need of strengthening of networks of likeminded institutions particularly at the grassroots level.
Giving a media perspective to the issue, Ajay Kumar from Bihar Times elaborated the role of media as an effective partner with development practitioners. . He noted that media is not only the news of events and critics, but also a powerful medium to reflect the work of Government and humanitarian agencies. It somewhere plays a cementing role and also the open eye view for the wider public opinion.
Sanjay Pandey, Convener Bihar Inter Agency Group (BIAG) detailed the coordination between Government and NGOs in development sectors, but also cautioned that coordinated effort should be done in an unified manner of development intervention.
The workshop was also addressed by Saurabh Kumar who highlighted the social inclusion aspect with various development work done by the Government and agencies. The workshop was also addressed by Anand Vijeta, Google Early Warning System and Shrawan ji, the expert on first response in disasters. It was concluded with the way forward of having more interactive discussion and to bring community led partnership model hosted by Caritas India towards bringing enhanced nutritional food securities inclusive and access for all.
