Iran, UN Sign Deal on Disaster Management

Iran and the United Nations have signed an MoU to launch an office of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) in Tehran.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht and UN Under-Secretary General Shamshad Akhtar on Tuesday.

The APDIM is affiliated with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific known as ESCAP.

According to a Farsi report by Khabar Online, the centre which is going to be established in Tehran is tasked with providing ESCAP member states with information on disasters, especially quakes.

According to Nobakht, who is also a vice-president and the government’s spokesman, Iran has allocated a $3.3-million fund to the APDIM.

During the 2nd Session of the Governing Council of APDIM, Nobakht said that the country is ready to share its experience in the field of natural disasters with other countries and use such opportunities to promote national and international ideas.

He went on to say that Asia and Pacific is the world’s most dangerous region in terms of natural calamity.

40 representatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) participated in the event.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP or ESCAP), located in the United Nations Building in in Bangkok, Thailand, is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, under the administrative direction of the United Nations headquarters. It was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states. ESCAP has 53 member States and nine Associate members, home to more than two-third of the world population. As well as countries in Asia and the Pacific, it includes France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

ESCAP’s regional focus is managing globalization through programs in environmentally sustainable development, trade, and human rights.

One of the main environmental issues in Iran has been sandstorms which are said to originate in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, but a combination of events recently have brought Iran’s southern Khuzestan province to the brink of virtual collapse.

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