World Congress on Disaster Management
(WCDM) 2020
World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) is a unique initiative of DMICS to
bring researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world in the
same platform to discuss various challenging issues of disaster risk management.
The mission of WCDM is to promote interaction of science, policy and practices to
enhance understanding of risks and advance actions for reducing risks and building
resilience to disasters.
Four editions of WCDM have been held so far. The first WCDM took place in 2008 in
the Hitech city of Hyderabad. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India inaugurated
the Congress while Y S Rajasekhara Reddy former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
presided over the inaugural function. More than 1000 delegates representing various
national, provincial and local governments, UN bodies, scientific and technical
organisaions, universities, civil society organisations, corporate sector and media
attended the Congress.
The second WCDM was organised jointly with Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2015
in the coastal city of Vishakhapatnam The Congress focused on the need for coordinated
research and action involving all stakeholders for holistic management of disasters
in all its cycles - during pre-disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness;
on-disaster response and relief; and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.
The third WCDM was held in 2017 in Vishakhapatnam on a bigger scale to discuss the
challenging issues of reducing risks and building resilience to disasters across
sectors. The Congress adopted the Visakhapatnam Declaration and Plan of Action for
building resilience across seven pillars.
The fourth WCDM was organised in Mumbai jointly with Government of Maharashtra,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. More
than 1500 participants from 68 countries attended the event spread over 9 Plenary
Sessions, 63 Technical Sessions and 6 Special Feature Events.
WCDM has emerged as the largest global conference on disaster management outside
the UN system.
