ASEAN Consultation Meeting
UNISDR Asia and Pacific
contact: phamh@un.org
Description
The ASEAN region with a population of about 600 million is one of the most vulnerable regions in terms of exposure to hazards. In the past decade alone, several major disasters have impacted ASEAN countries. Among these is the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 which caused hundreds of thousands of fatalities and billions worth of losses in Indonesia and Thailand. In 2008, Myanmar lost hundreds of thousands of lives due to the destructive Cyclone Nargis. The Philippines and Viet Nam are also yearly visited by tropical cyclones which trigger flooding, landslides and other hazards that bring large devastations and losses to lives and properties. At the same time, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, countries within the Mekong River basin, also experience perennial flooding and drought that affects hundreds of villages and farmlands.
Despite this, the ASEAN region is home to slowly emerging economies seen to be among the potential economic drivers of Asia Pacific and the world, next to China and India. Given this prospects of the region to continuously expand its growth, there is a need to ensure that development is consistent with environmental and disaster management as well as the improvement of the people’s quality of life. It is with this premise that the ASEAN Member States strongly recognizes that DRR efforts are essential to protect development gains and build resilient ASEAN nations. Each ASEAN country also actively implements the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) to reduce losses and build resilience since its adoption in 2005.
Along with this, the ASEAN Member States ratified the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER), which entered into force in December 2009. This legally- binding regional agreement is an affirmation of the ASEAN region’s commitment to the goals of the HFA as it intends to promote regional cooperation and collaboration in reducing disaster losses and intensifying joint emergency response to disasters in the ASEAN.
In two years, the implementation of the AADMER Work Programme for 2010-2015 will be concluded at the same time with the HFA. It is therefore crucial for the ASEAN Member States to look forward and initiate preliminary discourse in identifying prospects for new regional initiatives or directions to ensure that goals of reducing losses and building resilience are sustained and new DRR challenges in the ASEAN region are addressed.
This meeting will provide opportunity for the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) to collectively discuss the ASEAN Sub-regional Report on HFA 2011-2013 and the region’s role and inputs to a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, based on the synthesized national inputs. The AMS will also be discussing regional level new initiatives and directions for DRR in adherence to the AADMER and the AADMER Work Programme for 2010-2015.
The outcome of the meeting will be an essential input for the ACDM’s statement on the 4th Session of the Global Platform on DRR, and for the 22nd ACDM Meeting and 2nd Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to AADMER scheduled at the end of May 2013 in Hanoi.
Expected Outcomes
1. Present and discuss updates on the ASEAN HFA Report 2011-2013
2. Discuss national recommendations on Post-HFA vis-a-vis the AADMER.
