New Delhi, May 2 (IANS): The International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, to be held from Wednesday, will present a critical discourse on the approach to put people at the centre of infrastructure development and resilience with an emphasis on ensuring the resilience of transitioning infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks, the organisers announced on Monday.

Kamal Kishore, member secretary, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and co-chair, India, of the Executive Committee of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) addressed a media conference here ahead of the hybrid three-day conference.

"Infrastructure is built to provide reliable, sustainable, predictable, and high-quality services to people. The conference will present a critical discourse on the approach to put people at the centre of infrastructure development and resilience with an emphasis on ensuring the resilience of transitioning infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks," Kishore said.

CDRI was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019 and is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks, the private sector, academic and knowledge institutions.

Veena Reddy, Mission Director, US AID, India, said, "Engaging the global community is the only way we will tackle the climate crisis. We expect the ICDRI 2022 not only to demonstrate the urgency of the challenges we face, but to inspire action on disaster-resilient infrastructure around the world."

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the US Agency for International Development (US AID) will together host the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure 2022.