Kamal Kishore, the head of India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), has been appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General with the disaster risk reduction portfolio.

“Kishore brings to the position nearly three decades of experience in disaster risk reduction, climate action and sustainable development at the global, regional, national and local levels, having worked in government, the United Nations and civil society organisations,” Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday while making the announcement.

In addition to his rank as an Assistant Secretary-General, Kishore will also be the Secreary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction heading the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

He succeeds Mami Mizutori of Japan.

Dujarric said, “As part of India’s Group of 20 (G20) presidency, he led the G20 Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction and contributed to the development of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, launched by the Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi) at the Climate Action Summit in 2019.”

Kishore, who as the head of NDMA has the rank of secretary to the government, joined the organisation in 2015.

The Geneva-headquartered UNDRR describes its mission as providing “leadership and support to accelerate global efforts in disaster risk reduction to achieve inclusive sustainable development and the goal of the Sendai Framework with the vision of a world where disaster risks no longer threaten the well-being of people and the future of the planet”.

UNDRR says it has a “ nimble work team of around 120 staff members” and five regional offices around the world.

Kishore is an architect by profession, obtaining his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee.

He also has a masters in urban planning, land and housing development from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.

He joins another Indian, Atul Khare, the under-secretary-general for operational support, at the senior management group, the upper echelon of the UN hierarchy, where Pramilla Patten, who is of Indian origin from Mauritius also serves as the special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

Of Kishore’s three decades of experience in disaster management and risk reduction, 13 of them were with the UN in New Delhi, Geneva and New York.

As the UN Development Programme’s regional advisor for South and South-West Asia, he provided support to “more than 10 countries on a range of public policy and institutional development issues, while also advising them on the use of appropriate risk reduction tools and methodologies”, according to the NDMA.

He has also helped recovery efforts after major disasters in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, his NDMA profile said.

In India during the Uttarkashi earthquake in 1991 and the Latur earthquake in 1993, he worked with the Action Research Unit for Development (TARU) on post-disaster reconstruction and resettlement.

Before joining the UNDP, Kishore was the director of Information and Research, and the manager of the Extreme Climate Events Programme covering Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre head-quartered in Bangkok.