A Public Symposium on Post Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned was held on 19 January 2006 in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, co-organized by International Recovery Platform (IRP) Secretariat, the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), Cabinet Office of Japan, Hyogo Prefectural Government, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), and United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN/OCHA) Kobe. The symposium attracted more than 180 participants from 21 countries throughout the Asian-Pacific region and provided a unique opportunity to learn from the past post disaster experiences and to identify the challenges faced in the recovery process of more recent major disasters, highlighting in particular strategies to reduce potential risk and reconstruct safer and better. Mr. Salvano Briceno, UN/ISDR Director indicated that the challenge lies in coordinating efforts amongst existing initiatives and resources and recognized the IRP as a very promising initiative to achieve this, and HFA (Hyogo Framework for Action) is a tool for everybody at any level for every day life. A signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Hyogo and Sri Lanka was also conducted as a donation for the victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster. The video of the symposium is available on IRP website (http://recoveryplatform.org/).
For more information on the Symposium and IRP, please contact Mr. Murata (murata@recoveryplatform.org).

The UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office carried out a review of the participation of children and young people in the response to the emergency and issued a comprehensive publication entitled “Children and Young People Responding to the Tsunami” as an outcome of a “Child and Youth Participation Forum and Fair” (Phuket, 12-16 November 2005), that brought together over 20 young people from five tsunami affected countries to share their experiences. Even though most of the report relates to the involvement of children in post disaster situations, several sections of the publication are of high relevance to disaster risk reduction and highlights encouraging and innovative behaviours and reflections of young people in disaster situations. Among others, as part of the workshop on “Education: Promoting Children’s Rights in Disaster Situations”, the Thai NGO “Plan Thailand” is helping children identify the issues affecting them, their families and environments, thereby raising children’s disaster awareness and related emergency preparedness concerns. In northern and eastern Thailand, children have learned about forest conservation, household sanitation and silk weaving as part of local curricula and have suggested mangrove conservation, natural resources management and indigenous cultures as part of the subjects in which they want to learn more. The latter subject was raised because many of the Moken Seafarin communities, due to the passing down of traditional folk wisdom, had recognized the impending signs of tsunami. An entire workshop was dedicated to the issue of “Mitigating Risk: Children’s Role in Disaster Preparedness” exploring the importance and benefit of involving children in mitigating the risks and effects of disasters. Save the Children Vietnam presented an initiative to teach children and adults how to spot the threats that disasters pose to young people and how to reduce the impending risks. Plan International presented recent research findings from tsunami-affected countries that reveal young people’s strong desire to participate in disaster preparedness plans.
For more information, please contact: Joachim Theis at jtheis@unicef.org

Regional Implementation Meeting for Asia and the Pacific for the Fourteenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), 19-20 January. ESCAP, in collaboration with FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok, UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and UNIDO Regional Office in Bangkok, hosted the Regional Implementation Meeting for Asia and the Pacific for the Fourteenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The meeting met to review the progress made as well as identify key challenges and opportunities towards implementation of the Johannesburg Plan of the Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), in the areas of (a) Energy for sustainable development; (b). Industrial development; (c) Air pollution/atmosphere; and (c) Climate change. Issues raised are similar to disaster risk reduction issues raised in the HFA priority 4: "Reduce the underlying risk factor". An extract from the climate change paragraph states that "stresses from climate and climate-related events and phenomena that could be exacerbated by future climate change are already being felt by most countries through extreme weather and natural disasters in the region". The text of the outcome of the meeting was still being debated and was not available but will be submitted to Geneva for their record.

The 6th ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management took place on 27 January 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The UN/ISDR was invited by the ASEAN Secretariat to brief the group on its recent and forthcoming activities in the region and to identify areas of potential cooperation in disaster risk reduction with the ACDM Member Countries. The discussions built on the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response recently adopted by ASEAN and that clearly refers to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), urging Member States to give priority to disaster risk reduction and cooperate closely to mainstream disaster risk reduction efforts into sustainable development policies planning and programming at all levels. The NDMOs were invited to cooperate even further at the national and community levels to enhance the participation of all relevant national and local stakeholders in a mapping exercise of existing actors, activities, legal and institutional mechanisms in place for DRR so as to assist the Government identify its own national priorities in terms of DRR and formulate a comprehensive strategic national action plan for DRR based on cohesiveness and partnership-building among relevant key national and local players. An area of immediate cooperation will be the contribution of ACDM Member Countries to the annual world campaign on disaster risk reduction that focuses this year on “Disaster Reduction begins at School”. The UN/ISDR invited the participants to provide contributions to this year’s campaign and a possible joint celebration of the ASEAN Day for Disaster Management and International Day for Disaster Reduction is foreseen for the first time next 11 October 2006 in Asia.
For more information, contact rosec@un.org.

The Second US Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS) Program Coordination Workshop was attended by ISDR–BKK. The purpose of the workshop was for the US IOTWS Program Team and partners to focus on “national and local level” donor coordination and more strategic implementation of IOTWS-related issues in support of the broader IOC/IOTWS process. Specific discussions focused on: i. National warning center and DM capacity building; ii. National and local warning communications systems; iii. Coastal community resilience and hazard analysis; iv. Coastal disaster mitigation policies and practices. Over 60 participants attended; ISDR Asian Partnership on Disaster Reduction was represented by UNOCHA and UN/ISDR. UNESCO/IOC briefed participants on the IOC/IOTWS-II meeting in Hyderabad and highlighted a strengthened partnership and cooperation in this area between the UN/ISDR and UNESCO/IOC. The $16.6 million US IOTWS Program managed by USAID provides regional support on development of the IOTWS, and works in five focus countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Maldives. The outcome of the workshop will be made available at www.iotws.org.
For more information, please contact Orestes Anastasia at oanastasia@usaid.gov

The UN-ISDR-BKK participated in the Provention Consortium Forum that was held on 2-3 February 2006 for the first time outside Geneva, in Bangkok, Thailand. The overall theme of the Forum this year was focusing on “Incentives for Reducing Risk” and considered the political, economic, social and environmental incentives needed for a more proactive ad preventive approach to dealing with disaster risk and vulnerability. To that end, the Forum was broken down into various sessions covering a broad spectrum of disaster management aspects, from state responsibility and community action in disaster risk reduction to risk transfer solutions and the role of private sector in DRR, without forgetting to what extent post disaster recovery offers a real window of opportunity for disaster reduction or how to turn learning and knowledge on DRR into concrete action. The Deputy Director ISDR Geneva, Helena Molin Valdes was invited at the Forum as a panelist in Session 2 on “Government incentives-and disincentives-for investing in disaster reduction” and briefed the group on the relevance of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as an incentive to boost governments’ action in implementing disaster risk reduction at the national level. A comprehensive report on the discussions will be available at www.proventionconsortium.org.

The UN Country Team for Thailand produced a first draft of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for Thailand which, following consultations with the Royal Government of Thailand, was renamed as the “United Nations Partnership Framework (UNPAF). The document provides a comprehensive, collective and integrated UN system response to the national priorities and needs identified for Thailand within the framework of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Among them, disaster risk reduction was recognized as one of the priority areas on which the RTG wishes to pay particular attention. References to DRR and the HFA are integrated as part of the Sections on “Environment and Natural Resources” and “Local Governance”. The UNPAF Thailand is a good illustration of the integration of disaster risk reduction within national development planning. The proposed document will be submitted for the RTG’s final approval. The UN/ISDR-BKK will be working closely with the UN Country Team to facilitate the effective implementation of DRR at the national level over the coming five years.
For more information, please contact chung2@un.org or rosec@un.org

A national disaster risk management framework document, entitled the “Roadmap for a Safer Sri Lanka” was launched last 30 December 2005 in Colombo by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) of Sri Lanka and Ministry of Disaster Management in collaboration with UNDP Sri Lanka. The document is a ten-year framework to lower the risks of future disasters and to guide the management of these disasters in Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, as the chief guest at the launch, welcomed the document as a useful tool “to lead to a more efficient and coordinated approach to disaster risk management”. The Roadmap includes seven components related to the preparation of a national policy for disaster management, reviewing and formalizing mandates, identifying capacity development needs of agencies to perform their disaster management functions. The roadmap will also develop a vulnerability atlas for Sri Lanka to enable development planning which is sensitive to multiple hazards and associated vulnerabilities. Other components include multi-hazard early warning systems, preparedness and response plans, integrating DRM into development, community-based disaster management and public awareness, education and training. A supplement to the road map with detailed project proposals is under preparation and expected by March 2006 , which shall include references to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). For more information, please contact ramraj.narasimhan@undp.org

The Indonesian Society for Disaster Management (MPBI) in Jakarta, Indonesia, is cooperating very closely with ISDR-BKK and has carried out, among other important activities in DRR, the translation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and of the Beijing Declaration in Bahasa as well as the production of a leaflet in Bahasa inviting to different workshops on the issue of MicroFinance to meet the objectives of the 2005 Annual Campaign on Disaster Reduction. MPBI has played a critical role in advancing the discussions on the legislative reform in Indonesia and in formulating a draft Disaster Management Bill that recognizes disaster management as part of basic human rights, in particular the “Right to Safety”. Dr. Pujiono contributed to produce a White Paper on “Disaster Management in Indonesia in 2005 – A Briefing Paper on Legislative Reform” in Bahasa and translated it into English.
For more information, please contact wenny@mpbi.org or hening_parlan@yahoo.com

The UN/ISDR-BKK was invited to take part in ADPC’s Regional Workshop on Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) Standards for the South East Asia region (24-27 January) led by Ian Davis. HFA was very much present in the discussions, which mainly focused though on brainstorming exercises on the relevance to develop “standards” in disaster management. The idea of investigating on low / no cost initiatives in disaster reduction in the Asia and Pacific region came out of the meeting, and the UN/ISDR-BKK was requested to evaluate the possibility to take the leadership in such an initiative.

At the request of the Resident Coordinator in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently fielded a Humanitarian Affairs Officer (HAO), Mr. Antonio Massella, to Port Moresby to strengthen the UN system’s disaster preparedness and mitigation capacity. The HAO is currently housed within the RC’s office and will work closely with UN Country Team members to establish a standing nationwide contingency plan to cover various scenarios including natural and human-made disasters. Building on OCHA’s comparative advantage in the disaster preparedness arena, regional expertise in public information, advocacy and coordination will aim to raise awareness of PNG’s profile within the region. Mapping of vulnerabilities is another short term priority. Strong interest exists among key stakeholders for the establishment of a disaster management team to ensure a coherent and cohesive response in the event of a disaster. The HAO will be responsible for providing secretariat and reporting services to the team and RC as its head. Consultations and discussions with key UN, government and NGO colleagues will continue in the weeks ahead.”