ASEAN: Priorities for disaster risk reduction - opinion

From 2004 to 2014, Southeast Asia contributed to more than 50 percent of the total global disaster fatalities, or 354,000 of the 700,000 deaths in disasters worldwide. The total economic loss was US$91 billion, reports Jonatan Lassa for The Jakarta Post.

In his opinion piece, Jonatan Lassa asks about how a global DRR framework should be adopted by regional actors. What does it mean for ASEAN with its ASEAN Agreement for Disaster Management and Emergency Response? What does Sendai’s framework mean for Southeast Asia’s 600 million people?

"The question is, what should ASEAN prioritize in the next five years? At the moment, there is no regional target on economic loss reduction per capita set by global or regional actors. ASEAN will face daunting tasks in reducing its regional disaster mortality, the number of affected populations and the consistent reduction in terms of per capita economic loss. However, without successful implementation measures in the region, the above targets will not be achieved by 2030"