Effective inheritance of natural disaster adaptation activities

Bài liên quan

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

Vietnam actively participates in natural disaster management cooperation

On the afternoon of October 10, the 4^th Meeting of ADRP was held, chaired by Mr. Muhd Harrith Rashidi Bin Haji Muhd Jamin, Director of Brunei’s National Disaster Management Center and co-representative to the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM).

The agenda includes several main contents, such as: updating activities related to natural disaster management initiated by ASEAN agencies; declarations of ASEAN leaders on sustainable resilience and the potential role of ADRP; and the “whole-of-ASEAN” approach to disaster resilience.

According to the ASEAN Secretariat, one of the results that are worth noting in ASEAN cooperation on natural disaster management is the ASEAN Disaster Management Week, held on August 22–23 in Singapore.

With the theme "Mobilizing ASEAN and Its Partners on the Journey towards Building a Disaster Resilient ASEAN Community," the event had the participation of over 250 delegates from ACDM, other specialized agencies of ASEAN, and regional and international partners and organizations.

"Climate change is the main cause of increasingly complex natural disaster risks, significantly affecting poverty and migration levels as well as many other fields," said the representative of the ASEAN Secretariat.

According to the representative of the ASEAN Secretariat, current conditions pose an urgent requirement for better forecasting technologies to adapt to unpredictable weather. In addition, improving data from national to local levels also needs to be promoted.

During the discussion sessions here, delegates also said that public-private cooperation is an important means to accelerate the building of an ASEAN community resilient to natural disasters. Cooperation does not just stop at providing funding.

ADRP was established to further promote the “whole-of-ASEAN” approach to disaster management. The first meeting of ADRP was held on June 23, 2021.

Not only does it promote synthetic power and coordination among ASEAN’s sectoral agencies, centers, dialogue partners, inter-sectoral partners, and development partners, but ADRP also calls for the involvement of UN agencies and non-ASEAN disaster management organizations to enhance ASEAN's capacity to act early before natural disasters.

At the 4^th meeting, ACDM Indonesia proposed a general approach to strengthening resilience. That is, to raise community awareness in pilot areas about natural disasters and climate change and build the capacity of the community here to conduct risk and vulnerability assessments.

On that basis, the parties will jointly develop action plans to prevent and minimize risks and propose plans in accordance with the ASEAN Framework on Anticipatory Action.

The Indonesian side is conducting field research and confirms the selection of six areas in six communes of Southeast Asian countries. These locations were chosen because they are among the sites suffering from the most natural disasters in the ASEAN region in 2021.

Summing up the meeting, Mr. Muhd Harrith Rashidi announced that the 5^th ADRP Meeting will be held in parallel with the 44^th ACDM Meeting, which will all take place in Brunei in 2024.

Thanking the host country of Vietnam for successfully organizing the event and the support of the ASEAN Secretariat, Mr. Muhd Harrith Rashidi did not forget to remind member countries in the region to strengthen inter-sectoral cooperation and constantly expand their networks to increase their resilience and ability to respond quickly to natural disasters.

"Natural disasters are increasingly unpredictable. That requires adaptation and inheritance of what we have done before and what we discussed at today's meeting into future plans," he emphasized.

In an exchange with the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, Mr. Lee Yam Ming, CEO of the AHA Center (ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management), said that programs to support people's resilience to natural disasters should have separate policies for the disadvantaged group. "This is the most vulnerable group and also less able to recover from natural disasters," he said.

As Singapore's focal point in drafting and adopting the ASEAN Declaration on One ASEAN One Response and the ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management, Mr. Lee added that he would consult the opinions at the 4^th ADRP in proposals for the Strategic Policy Dialogue on Disaster Management (SPDDM) and Senior Executive Programme in Disaster Management (SEPDM) in the region.