Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a cross-cutting and complex issue. Therefore, it requires political and legal commitment, public understanding, scientific knowledge, careful development planning, responsible enforcement of policies and legislation, people centered early warning systems, and effective disaster preparedness and response mechanisms. A multi-stakeholder national coordination for DRR can provide or mobilize the combined knowledge, skills, and resources required for DRR and its mainstreaming into development policies, planning and programmes.

Under the Chairmanship of the Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management the NDMCC’s roles and responsibilities are:

• It is a national mechanism by which the country can address inter-related social, economic and environmental problems;
• It supports the identification of urgent needs in the area of DRR, allocating resources, presenting time table for actions and monitoring and reviewing the implementation of DRR activities in line with HFA and Road Map ;
• It works towards better resourced, effective and integrated DRR efforts amongst national stakeholders and amongst national, regional and international organizations. It supports development goals, by providing a framework for systematic thought and commitment to priority actions across sectors and the territory;
• It serves as catalyst for national consultations and consensus building, as well as for DRR priority identification and policy formulation, implementation and monitoring DRR activities. The emphasis should be on managing progress towards DRR objectives rather than producing a “Plan” as an end product ; and
• It facilitates the allocation of resources from donors, development banks, and UN agencies that are not represented in their respective countries. This can be advanced by advocating the importance and necessity for UN country offices to support the integration of DRR into UN backed development programmes

Primary Activities:

• Establishing baseline information for DRR, including disaster and risk profiles, national policies, strategies, capacities, resources and programmes;
• Identify targets, gaps, concerns and challenges and setting forth accepted priority areas in DRR;
• Advocating the urgent need for developing or adopting policies and legislations for DRR;
• Benchmarking progress made in promoting DRR and its mainstreaming into development policies, planning and programems;
• Developing result-oriented work plan for National DM Coordination Committee to coordinate the DRR activities in line with the HFA and “Road Map for Disaster Risk Management; Towards a Safer Sri Lanka”;
• Coordinating joint efforts among members of National DM Coordination Committee to reduce the vulnerability of people at relatively high risk;
• Monitoring, recording and reporting of DRR actions at national and community levels in line with HFA and “Road Map for Disaster Risk Management; Towards a Safer Sri Lanka”;
• Documenting lessons learned and good practices, and share the findings at national, regional and international levels;
• Working towards better integration of DRR into national planning, policies and programmes in development and humanitarian assistance;
• Initiate the Community Based/Led Disaster Management (CBDM) approach at national level to strengthen community’s decision making process; and
• Pursue empirical researches/ studies current DRM/ DRR practices, identify gaps, and evolve mechanisms for successful implementation of CBDM.