Brunei disaster management reference handbook 2022

This updated Brunei Disaster Management Reference Handbook provides a baseline of understanding of factors that influence disaster management within the country. Although Brunei is generally seen as at low risk of major hazards, the country lies along a coastline where there is both the long-term risk of sea level rise and the potential risk of tsunami. The country’s already high exposure to heavy but unpredictable rainfall and the impacts of global climate change threaten to increase the severity of hazards confronting Brunei. This handbook is intended to help inform persons who are planning or executing a disaster response mission in Brunei or who will be working alongside Bruneian responders and international humanitarians.

This handbook details that Brunei has institutionalized its national disaster risk reduction and disaster management processes under the National Disaster Management Centre, which is responsible for overseeing all phases of disaster management from risk assessment and adaptation to mitigation and recovery. Under Brunei’s whole-of-nation approach, there is close collaboration and coordination among government line ministries and security authorities. Moreover, Brunei is an active and integrated member-state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has developed mechanisms and tools for responding to disasters in a unified and coordinated way. Civil society initiatives also provide contingents of personnel and assets for disaster risk reduction and disaster response.