Author Profile

Mihir Bhatt

Institution: All India Disaster Mitigation Institute

City: Ahmedabad

State: Gujarat

Country: India

Mihir R. Bhatt studied and practiced architecture and city planning in Ahmedabad and Delhi, India, and later Cambridge and Washington DC, USA. On returning to India in 1989 he initiated a project on disaster risk mitigation with a team of three in 1989 which is now the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI). AIDMI works on both direct action and community learning. Mihir studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received Russell E. Train Institutional Fellowship from the World Wildlife Fund, USA (1997 for innovation in institution buildings); Eisenhower Fellowship, USA (2000 for leadership in humanitarian and disaster risk reduction efforts in India); and Ashoka International Fellowship, USA (2004 for social enterprise in mobilising resources). He has set up the risk transfer initiative—including Afat Vimo: a life and non-life disaster insurance and mitigation programme—for the 12000 micro-enterprise beneficiaries of Livelihood Relief Fund (LRF) of AIDMI spread in five states of India. He evaluated tsunami recovery for Disaster Emergency Committee, UK; co-managed Local Capacity theme of Tsunami Evaluation Coalition, UK and advised NGO Impact Initiative of President Clinton’s tsunami recovery office; evaluated Oxfam International response in South India and Sri Lanka; and helped UNDP mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction in Sri Lanka. He is also advising CDKN on its different programmes related to vulnerability reduction, urban resilience and climate smart disaster risk management. He was one of the lead co-authors of chapter 9 of IPCC SREX Report, “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”. He is promoting and strengthening the closure integration between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation through programme development, monitoring, evaluation, review, and donor dialogues. He is building synergies for Climate Smart Disaster Risk Management (CSDRM) partnerships at subnational level in India. He has worked with IFIs, UN system, donors, government task force and a wide range of local authorities and organisations on CSDRM, innovations in risk finance, autonomous adaptations, loss and damage, safer infrastructure services and ways of making the poor central to urban and sub-national processes.

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