NAPSIPAG DISASTER RESEARCH GROUP(NDRG)

 

NAPSIPAG DISASTER RESEARCH GROUP(NDRG-2020) is a specialized body of NAPSIPAG (Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of public Administration and Governance-2004) which is located in India. It owes its origin to NAPSIPAG researchers in Law & Governance who discovered the need for transdisciplinary interaction with practitioners in law-administration-natural sciences-e-governance and Artificial Intelligence to prevent and mitigate disasters. Disasters have become too frequent and more devastating with a gruelling dent in the GDP of Asia Pacific countries. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan alone combine to show the highest mortality risk index (MRI) but this is also a region where almost 40% of the world’s poor are located in subsistence economy in fragile zones. Disasters are more an issue of development, livelihood and sustainable socio-economic prosperity. The immediate catalyst to bring disaster managers together was the NAPSIPAG’s International Conference at Doiwala in Dehradun June 20-22, 2013 at the EcoAshram of legendary environmental lawyer Shri.M.C.Mehta. The timing of this meet on ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ was on land mismanagement and human greed as a cause for environmental distress and disasters. This discourse providentially coincided with the devastating and ruinous Uttarakhand floods. The spectre of death as humans and nonhumans succumbed to a furious and anguished nature in the rapids of the holy river Ganges called for revisiting laws and institutions which failed humanity. The congregating experts from all over Asia-Pacific vouched for an intensive research, training, education and dissemination in disaster studies as an indispensable pathway to sustainable development.
History of NAPSIPAG:
NAPSIPAG was announced by Dr. Jak Jabes of ADB at the 2003 Miami (USA) Meet of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). The next year in 2004 it was formally launched through an international conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 6‐8, 2004 under the leadership of Dr. Gazali Abbas and Prof. Norma Mansor with over a hundred public administration institutions from the East, West, South and North Asia in attendance. NAPSIPAG is the result of a technical assistance project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to establish a network of schools and institutes of public administration within the Asia Pacific region. During the Business Meeting Chaired by Mr. Raza Ahmad (Governance head-ADB) held at the launching conference, an Interim Steering Committee (ISC) was created to provide initial direction to the Network. The Committee was composed of five institutions:
  1. The China National School of Administration (CNSA);
  2. The National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN)Malaysia;
  3. The National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), University of the Philippines;
  4. The Institute of Public Enterprise, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India and

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore.The Annual Conference 2005 was hosted by the China National School of Administration, on December 5‐6, 2005. The first Steering Committee meeting was held on December 7, 2005 that appointed Professor Yuan Shuhog of CNSA as the Chairman of the Committee and endorsed INTAN as its secretariat. The second steering committee meeting was held at Monash University on June 30, 2006. The meeting decided to publish Journal of Administration & Governance as one of its official publications and elected an editorial board with Dr Sharif As‐Saber as its Editor‐in‐Chief. In the 2008 General Meeting and Annual Conference in Delhi, a new steering committee was elected with the following members (2008‐2011):

  1. The Department of Management, Monash University, Australia;
  2. The Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India;
  3. The Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC), Dhaka, Bangladesh;
  4. The National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Jakarta, Indonesia;
  5. The National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), University of the Philippines.

The Steering Committee appointed Dr Sharif As‐Saber from Monash University as the Chairman and Prof Amita Singh from Jawaharlal Nehru University as the Secretary General of the Committee and endorsed the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University as its new secretariat. In the 2012 Steering Committee Meeting at Colombo, Sri Lanka, it was decided to have only one Coordinator for NAPSIPAG who would thereafter be called ‘Secretary General’. Except for the period 2016-2019 when Snr. Prof. Lalitha Fernando as the Secretary General (elected in Vishakhapatnam International Congress) led the organization from Sri Lanka’s University of Sri Jayewardenepura, NAPSIPAG has been located in India with Prof. Amita Singh as the Secretary General elected in 2008 till today.
Guiding Principles of NDRG

  • Intellectual freedom & Social Justice
  • Respect and dignity of human and nonhuman lives
  • Gender Neutral and Gender Inclusive interaction
  • Disability-inclusive framework of research and interaction (disability of age, caste, gender,physical, visual etc.
  • Increased International and regional Collaboration
  • Transdisciplinarity and bridge-building between various disciplines , services and occupations.

Mission of NDRG

To refine, evolve and inspire meaningful and implementable legal and governance frameworks which are inclusive, which alleviate human suffering , which conserve biodiversity and respect nonhuman rights.

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