New BRICS disaster framework promises unified relief, but success hinges on community-level action

New Delhi, With the BRICS Summit concluding with the New Delhi Declaration, the National Disaster Management Authority has outlined three priorities going forward, including continued cooperation among the members of the bloc, a long-term agenda it hopes China will also engage with when it takes over the BRICS presidency, and greater sharing of best practices between countries.

Speaking to PTI, Krishna S Vatsa, NDMA member and Head of the Department, said the key takeaways for other countries lie in India's record on preparedness and reduction in mortality due to cyclones, along with a larger grassroots-level campaign for strengthening disaster management down to the last mile.

The BRICS New Delhi Declaration introduced two voluntary reference documents to help the member nations coordinate on disasters.

The BRICS Guidelines for Disaster Management Early Warning Data Integration provide a framework for countries to share weather, flood and earthquake-tracking data to improve advanced warning systems. The other document the BRICS Voluntary Principles for Climate-Resilient Urban Infrastructure offers a set of optional benchmarks to help cities factor climate-risk assessments into their local building plans.

Asked how these commitments can be turned into practical rules that work across borders, Manisha Choudhary, national coordinator at the United Nations Environment Programme in India, noted that while effective adaptation is about combining robust scientific assessments and evidence with local, traditional knowledge, involving communities as active participants plays an important role too.

"Institutional capacity, systems and financing play a critical role in delivering adaptation measures on ground. While national frameworks and institutions provide the enabling environment, including policies, standards and resources for action, local knowledge and community participation ensures that solutions are appropriate to the identified risks and grounded in local context," Choudhary told PTI.

"Involvement of the community as active participants in identifying risks, shaping solutions and building resilience plays an important role," she added.

She further highlighted that the challenge is turning shared principles into planning, infrastructure development, investment and implementation of actions across different contexts, moving from risk awareness to risk-informed development.

"This means climate and disaster-risk information should influence where and how we plan cities, infrastructure and public services, and how we invest and prioritise vulnerable communities. It requires stronger links between climate-risk information, disaster-risk reduction, urban planning, financing and governance at all levels, essentially a whole-of-governance approach," the UNEP official told PTI.

The UNEP India supported the NDMA as a knowledge partner under India's BRICS chairship in 2026.