Meetings and conferences
India

Local innovation to global action for heat, health, and livelihoods: Resilience starts at home

Format
Online
Date
Register

On the occasion of the 2026 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) is convening a virtual roundtable on "Local Innovation to Global Action for Heat, Health, and Livelihoods: Resilience Starts at Home." The roundtable will examine how disaster and climate resilience can begin where people live and work.

Time: 

4:00 PM to 5:15 PM IST

About

Responding directly to this year's IDDRR theme, "Resilience Starts at Home," the discussion will look at how households can become active agents of resilience. That is possible when they understand their risks, can respond to early warnings, can make informed decisions about their homes, and take part in local planning. Extreme heat, home-based livelihoods and women workers will be a particular focus.

The roundtable will explore early warning, safer homes, local preparedness, cooling, community leadership and livelihood protection. It will also mark the launch of a special issue of Southasiadisasters.net. The issue brings together practical experiences on women and heat, early warning, household resilience, climate education, urban cooling, women-led action, regional cooperation and livelihood-sensitive heat planning.

Key Objectives

  • Connect resilience at home with wider disaster risk reduction through safer homes, health protection, livelihood security, preparedness and locally led action.
  • Promote practical local solutions for extreme heat, including early warning, cooling, safer workspaces, women-led action and community-based adaptation.
  • Bring local experience into wider policy and practice, so that Heat Action Plans, urban planning, public health systems and disaster risk reduction become more inclusive and actionable.

Key Discussion Areas

  • Resilience starts at home: how households can become safer and better prepared through cooling, water access, health protection, risk awareness and livelihood security.
  • From heat warning to early action: how forecasts and warnings can lead to timely, practical action for women, workers, small businesses and vulnerable communities.
  • From local innovation to wider action: how community-led and locally tested solutions can influence disaster risk reduction at the city, state, national, regional and global levels.

 

Speakers:

Dr. Midhila Mallika, Senior Consultant, Recovery & Reconstruction, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), India

Ms. Mikiko Tanaka, Director and Head, UNESCAP Subregional Office for South and South-West Asia, India

Ms. Remya Sasindran, Co-Founder, Words Rhythms Images (WRI), India

Ms. Pritha Khanal, GESI Specialist, Duryog Nivaran, Nepal

Mr. Mihir R. Bhatt, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), India

Join us to explore how resilience that starts at home can shape stronger action on heat, health, livelihoods, and disaster risk reduction, from the community and the city to the national, regional, and global levels.