The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) on May.27 announced the arrival of Indian official Kamal Kishore who started his term as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s special representative for disaster risk reduction.
Kishore succeeds Japan’s Mami Mizutori at the position. His appointment was announced by Guterres.
“The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) welcomed on May.20 the arrival of Mr. Kamal Kishore, who started his term as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of UNDRR,” the UNDRR said in a statement.
Kishore praised Mizutori’s leadership and thanked Paola Albrito for serving as the acting SRSG prior to his arrival.
“UNDRR’s ambition matches the scale of the problem,” he said.
Kishore has worked in the sphere of disaster risk reduction at various local, national, regional and global levels. He also served as the Head of the Department of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in India.
Prior to his tenure at NDMA, Kishore had already worked for 13 years with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in
New Delhi, Geneva and New York. During this time, he led global advocacy to integrate disaster resilience concerns in the Sustainable Development Goals and a global team of disaster risk reduction advisers to support UNDP program countries.
Prior to UNDP, he served as Director of Information and Research, and Manager of the Extreme Climate Events Programme covering Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in
Bangkok from 1996 to 2002, and as an Architect at the Action Research Unit for Development from 1992 to 1994 in
New Delhi, where he worked on post-earthquake reconstruction projects.
An alumnus of IIT Roorkee, Kishore also holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning, Land and Housing Development from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand. He is fluent in both English and Hindi.
