Act early before natural disasters so that the community is less vulnerable

One ASEAN, One Response

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Minister Le Minh Hoan:Join hands to share misfortune and combine capacity to respond to natural disasters

ASEAN to hold annual meetings on disaster management cooperation with three countries

On the morning of October 12, in Ha Long City, the 11^th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management (AMMDM) opened, chaired by Chairman of AMMDM, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, and Vice Chairman of AMMDM, Brunei’s Minister of Home Affairs Dato Ahmaddin Abdul Rahman. Also attending were Ministers and Deputy Ministers of ASEAN member states and Timor-Leste.

In his opening speech, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that the ASEAN region is one of the most dynamic and developing regions in the world but also faces many challenges due to climate change and natural disasters.

"Recognizing the seriousness of challenges, over the past many years, we have jointly built and deployed cooperation mechanisms with orientations and visions that have been consolidated and developed through each stage," the Minister said.

ASEAN cooperation started from strengthening information sharing, establishing connection channels at all levels, and implementing cooperation programs on training and dissemination of advanced approaches to commitments and signing agreements to better respond to natural disasters together via close and effective support mechanisms. Thereby, ASEAN has established the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), the ASEAN Disaster Management and Emergency Response (ADMER) Fund, and the Work Programme of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) for each period.

According to the Minister, ASEAN states not only continue to inherit but also take a new step, which is the journey "From the response to early action and resilience: ASEAN towards global leadership in disaster management", to ensure the goal of "One ASEAN, One Response".

In that journey, Vietnam has and will continue to commit to putting all its efforts into and participating more actively with ASEAN countries in building and effectively implementing joint cooperation mechanisms on natural disaster management in ASEAN countries. This aims to help people in ASEAN countries live peacefully in a society safe from natural disasters.

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Expectations for the Ha Long Declaration at the 43rd Meeting of the ASEAN Committee

Improving natural disaster response technology through public-private cooperation

On the anniversary of ASEAN Day for Disaster Management and International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM), Minister Le Minh Hoan believed that countries in the region would continue to cooperate to make ASEAN a developed, prosperous, and safe region in the world.

"With the spirit of solidarity, reinforcing strategic trust, sincere cooperation on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefit, and with the determination and responsibility of countries in the region, we completely believe that we can jointly increase our strength, be ready to overcome challenges of climate change and natural disasters, and protect the achievements of many years of efforts," said Minister Le Minh Hoan.

Sharing views with Minister Le Minh Hoan, Vice Chairman of AMMDM, Brunei’s Minister of Home Affairs Dato Ahmaddin Abdul Rahman acknowledged the achievements in 2023 in all fields.

He also expressed his strong commitment to implementing the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on Sustainable Resilience and recalled the importance of promoting sustainable resilience as a framework to promote cooperation between countries in the region.

"We commit to enhancing resilience to climate change and natural disasters for sustainable development and solving fundamental challenges to sustainable resilience. Through knowledge and information sharing, technical support, mobilizing resources, and capacity-building initiatives, we will strengthen cooperation with non-ASEAN partners, international organizations, and the private sector," he said.

Turn 'Early Action' into concrete results

Reporting at the conference, Mr. Pham Duc Luan, representative of ACDM Vietnam and Director of the Department of Dike Management and Natural Disaster Prevention and Control (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), said that Vietnam has participated in organizing and successfully implementing many works in 2023.

Among them are two ACDM Annual Meetings; 26 natural disaster monitoring and prevention activities; ASEAN Disaster Management Week; advising and proposing the Ha Long Declaration; and the ASEAN Disaster Resilience Forum (ADRP).

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AHA set a record for completing work in the year Vietnam chaired ACDM

Sharing more results of ASEAN's activities in natural disaster management, the AHA Centre announced that it has completed about 87% of the total 149 activities in 2023. The Governing Board expects the AHA Centre to maintain that progress in order to be able to complete 97% of the 2023 plan by the end of this year. This will be the highest completion rate that AHA has achieved in recent years, surpassing 2022's 94% completion rate.

When Tropical Storm Mocha made landfall in Myanmar in May, the AHA Centre supported rapid assessment of affected areas and mobilized USD 1.69 million in relief resources. After that, the Centre continued to send relief to victims of the Doksuri and Khanun storms in the Philippines, worth USD 680,000.

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Vietnam actively participates in natural disaster management cooperation

Effective inheritance of natural disaster adaptation activities

"Being located in the tropical monsoon region, ASEAN countries need to act together to further strengthen efforts for natural disaster risk reduction for people in the ASEAN community,” emphasized Minister Le Minh Hoan.

According to the Minister, "early action" is a new concept, but in essence, it is activities in the prevention and response phase before a natural disaster happens that agencies and organizations doing natural disaster prevention and control work have been implementing.

"Simply understood, early action is preparing in advance, preparing early, from a sense of vigilance and equipping strong knowledge to preparing human and material resources in advance. For example, organizing the procurement of means, equipment, and supplies for natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue; implementing structural and non-structural measures to prevent and reduce natural disaster risks; relocating people to a safe place; and well-building communication and training activities to improve people's natural disaster prevention and control capacity," the head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development explained.

On that basis, the Minister called on ASEAN countries to join hands to create a corridor to promulgate an early action mechanism, aiming to support vulnerable communities based on forecasting and early warning time frames from specialized agencies. This will help the work of preparing and responding to natural disasters more effectively, save recovery costs after natural disasters, and improve the community's resilience to natural disasters, moving from passive to proactive.

Recognizing the superiority and progress of early action in natural disaster management, ASEAN and its dialogue partners have developed and adopted the ASEAN Framework on Anticipatory Action in Disaster Management. This framework aims to orient and implement initiatives; support early action based on forecasts and warnings; and accelerate ASEAN's efforts in building a self-reliant and resilient ASEAN Community towards becoming a leading mechanism in natural disaster management.

At the end of the meeting, representatives of the natural disaster prevention management agencies of 10 ASEAN countries agreed to adopt the Ha Long Declaration. Minister Le Minh Hoan also respectfully handed over the chairmanship of AMMDM and ACDM to Brunei’s Minister of Home Affairs Dato Ahmaddin Abdul Rahman. Mr. Dato pledged to continue to inherit Vietnam's achievements in 2023 in order to develop the region sustainably.

Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting with the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, Mr. Markus Lacanilao, Deputy Director of the Office of Civil Defense in charge of public affairs in the Philippines, shared that the need for cooperation in natural disaster management in the ASEAN region is an urgent issue, especially in the context of the increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters.

"Strengthening cooperation among ASIAN member states plays an extremely important role. We can respond effectively and minimize the impacts of natural disasters by sharing resources and information to increase the abilities of resilience, prevention, response, and recovery after natural disasters," he said.

Assessing Vietnam's role in the year as Chairman of AMMDM, Mr. Lacanilao acknowledged that Vietnam's efforts have promoted a series of activities, launched many initiatives, and raised awareness for many regions and communities affected by natural disasters. Thanks to a series of these efforts, ASEAN has saved many lives and minimized the economic and environmental impacts caused by natural disasters.