Gyalshing, 15th February 2022 (IPR): Under the Green Recovery Initiative of UNDP India in West Sikkim, the first review meeting of the One Health Management Committee, notified by the West District Administration was held at the Conference Hall of District Administrative Centre (DAC), Rabdentse today.
In Sikkim, the Green Recovery initiative focuses on the aspects of green energy and the One Health Approach. The One Health Initiative is for enhancing the management of zoonotic diseases and is being implemented under Green Recovery Initiative by UNDP and the State Government of Sikkim in convergence with the ongoing GOI-GEF-UNDP Secure Himalaya project.
The District Collector West, Shri Karma R. Bonpo presided over the meeting who was also appointed as Chairman of the Committee and also attended by other notified members of the Committee.
At the outset, Shri Bonpo thanked the UNDP India for providing such support under the said initiative. He then suggested to UNDP to make a sustainable tourism policy in such a way that can provide existing tourism practices and create sustainable growth. He stressed on the project which focuses on strengthening the capacities of different stakeholders associated and bringing out the expected outputs in a time-bound manner. We need agro-tourism at the tourist spot where local stakeholders can promote, display and sell the products made by them, he said. In addition, he highlighted the areas of assessment of long term food security and stated that study of diseases in plants is also needed, seeds need to be tested as crop yielding is decreasing day by day. Further, he suggested for research in plant diseases and asked for the involvement of institutional support for the same. Plant diseases need to be controlled and should increase productivity further, he added.
UNDP representatives gave an overview presentation on the progress of the initiative so far including solarization of the PHC at Yuksom, providing support to the Veterinary Office, Yuksom, conducting awareness campaigns on zoonotic diseases with more than two hundred stakeholders and generating different knowledge products, they also discussed in detail the proposed activities in the coming months including a two-phase training on detection and management of zoonotic diseases for officers and frontline staff of the focal departments of Forest, Public Health and Animal Health.
A short video on the Health initiatives was also showcased at the meeting by UNDP.
During the course of the meeting, an interactive session was also conducted wherein inputs and suggestions were discussed in detail.
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