UN body seeks enhanced cooperation with Japan on disaster response

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs intends to expand its partnership with Japan through its office in Kobe, itself devastated by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, to improve disaster preparedness worldwide, reports the Mainichi Daily news. Rashid Khalikov, head of the Geneva branch of OCHA said the Kobe office will work at understanding how "we can benefit from the national experience and national expertise that Japan gathered all these years in responding to natural disasters and in building resilience of local communities."