Asian Regional Platform Heads Consultation
Description
The Asia Regional Platform consists of the Asia Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMC DRR) and the ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP) forum; the former being the political arm and the later as the operation arm of the regional platform. The AMC DRR are held every two years and the IAP meetings are held twice a year.
The First AMCDRR was organized by the Government of China in Beijing in August 2005. It adopted the Beijing Action for Disaster Risk Reduction, a consensus to promote the newly-adopted HFA and to seek Asia-Pacific Governments’ commitment and actions to implement disaster risk reduction, including through increased collaboration and the strengthening of existing key regional cooperation mechanisms.
The Second Conference was conducted by Government of India in New Delhi in November 2007 and gave birth to the Delhi Declaration. It reaffirmed the commitment of governments in the region to HFA and agreed to expand further the biennial ministerial conferences as the ‘Regional Platform’ with participation of the national governments, regional and sub-regional organizations, UN Agencies, and other stakeholders including the civil society, scientific and technical organizations, the private sector and the media. This conference also affirmed that the Asia and the Pacific regional office of the UNISDR, within the framework of expanded ISDR Asia Partnership, shall provide the technical, operational and secretarial support to the Regional Platform.
The Third AMCDRR was convened by the Government of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in December 2008. Its overarching theme was “Multi-stakeholder Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Asia and Pacific region,” with a particular focus on Public Private Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction and community-based disaster risk reduction. The conference adopted the Kuala Lumpur Declaration.
The Fourth AMCDRR was held in Incheon, Korea in October 2010. With overarching theme of “Disaster Risk Reduction through Climate Change Adaptation, the Conference produced the Incheon Declaration on DRR in Asia and the Pacific 2010, which includes Incheon Regional Roadmap on DRR through CCA in Asia and the Pacific (REMAP) and Plan of Action REMAP.
The Government of Indonesia hosted the fifth AMCDRR in October 2012; with a theme of “Strengthening Local Capacity for Disaster Risk Reduction” and three sub-theme a) integrating local level disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into national development planning; b)local risk assessment and financing; and c) strengthening local risk governance and partnership.
The conference had a record attendance of 2,600 participants from 72 countries around the world. The event was honored with the presence of two heads of State, the Presidents of Indonesia and Nauru, and high-level delegations from 50 countries across the region which included 24 government ministers. For the first time, distinct stakeholder groups such as Parliamentarians, Mayors/ Local governments, groups representing children, disabled, gender, civil society, media, academic and research institutions and the private sector fully participated in the conference and prepared their own statement of commitments representing their respective communities.
The outcome of the conference was the ‘Yogyakarta Declaration’ that called upon countries to strengthen local capacity for disaster risk reduction.
The sixth AMCDRR is now being organized by the Government of Thailand which will be held in Bangkok in June 2014.
The Asia Ministerial Conferences as the Regional Platforms have been key in influencing the Global Platforms discussions. Especially, the recent regional platform and ministerial conferences in Asia (Indonesia, Oct, 2012), Americas (Chile-Nov, 2012), Europe (Croatia- Oct, 2012), Pacific (New Caledonia- Sep, 2012, Africa (Tanzania- Feb, 2013 ) and Arab States (Jordan- Mar 2013) have proven effective in determining the way forward for DRR efforts in the respective sub-regions and have undertaken very rigorous dialogues on issues related to the Post 2015 DRR and development agenda. In this context, the sixth AMCDRR to be held in 2014 will be of utmost importance to shape up the Asian thinking on the Post 2015 DRR arrangements and will provide a great opportunity for Governments and key stakeholders in Asia to shape up the future DRR arrangements globally.
At this juncture, having already convened five regional platform/ ministerial conferences, approaching the sixth AMCDRR in 2014 and the World conference for Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in 2015, the key question being asked now as:
a) How to monitor all the commitments and declarations made in these conferences and foster DRR activities in the region in a more coordinated and systematic manner?
b) How do all the past AMCDRR hosts bring together their actions to monitor the progress of DRR in the region?
c) How to support the 6th AMC DRR host, the WCDR and contribute substantively to the Post HFA/ HFA 2 discussions?
With the above questions in mind and in the spirit of enhancing the effectiveness of the AMCDRR/ Regional Platforms, Government of Indonesia as the host of 5 AMCDRR in coordination with the UNISDR Asia office would like to invite all the past Asian Ministerial Conference hosts (Government of China, Government of India, Government of Malaysia, Government of Korea) the current host of the 6 th AMCDRR (Government of Thailand) and the host of the WCDR (Government of Japan) to deliberate on the above issues and agree on a way forward
The consultative event with the hosts of AMCDRR/ Regional Platforms aims to discuss the way forward for the Regional Platforms/ Asia Ministerial Conferences in Asia.
More specifically, the session will focus on discussion on the key questions mentioned above:
a) How to monitor all the commitments and declarations made in the past ministerial conferences?
b) How past AMC hosts can champion key issues from the previous AMCs towards WCDR and beyond?
a) How to support the 6th AMC DRR host, the WCDR and contribute substantively to the Post HFA/ HFA 2 discussions?
Expected Outcomes
a) harmonizing the monitoring efforts;
b) championing key issues from the previous AMCs
c) supporting the 6 AMC DRR; supporting the Post HFA discussion; and the WCDR
Agenda
15.30- 15.40 Welcome remarks and introduction by BNPB, Government of Indonesia (Chair) and Jerry Velasquez (Co-chair) [TBC] 15.40 – 15.50 Brief overview of 6 AMCDRR – Government of Thailand 15.50 – 16.10 Brief overview of the Regional Platforms ,HFA 2 discussions and timeline towards the WCDR – UNISDR (TBC) 16:10 – 16: 50 Plenary discussion on a) How to monitor all the commitments and declarations made in the past ministerial conferences? b) Championing key issues from past AMCs c) How to support the 6th AMC DRR host, the WCDR and contribute substantively to the Post HFA/ HFA 2 discussions? 16:50 – 17:00 Summary of the discussion (action points) and wrap up
