Program for Enhancement of Emergency Response (PEER) Updates

First Regional MFR Instructors Workshop

The first regional MFR Instructors Workshop was held on 12-20 October 2001 at Jomtien, Pattaya, Thailand. The workshop was attended by six selected participants from each of India, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines. PEER aims to build up a team of trainers within partner countries in Asia to work together to organize and conduct MFR training at country level for first response organizations.

PEER Program Core Group Meeting in Nepal

The third annual Core Group Meeting was held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 26-27 November 2001. The two-day meeting was attended by Mr Bill Berger, Regional Advisor, USAID Nepal; Linda Gay Kentro, OFDA, Program Co-coordinator, USAID, Nepal; Rick Garcia from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department; and Lita Garcia, Program Manager, PEER, ADPC. The Core Group Meeting was organized both to discuss the workplan for the program's second phase and to review the first phase.

Medical First Response Course in Nepal

The Ministry of Home Affairs of Nepal and ADPC-PEER collaboratively held the first in-country Medical First Response (MFR) Course for Nepal at Pokhra in December 2001. It was conducted jointly with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department (MDFRD) and the United States Foreign Office of Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The course was aimed at providing knowledge and skills in medical first response, such as access to treatment and transportation of injured and sick victims. It used participatory, interactive instruction methodologies with practical demonstrations and exercises.

Second Regional Consultative Committee Meeting

The second meeting of the ADPC Consultative Committee on Regional Cooperation in Disaster Management (RCC) was held from 31 October to 2 November 2001 in Bangkok. The meeting (RCC2) was attended by 23 delegates from 17 countries and territories, and 13 observers representing 12 international and regional organizations, ODA and funding agencies.

Based on recommendations and action areas identified during RCC1 and RCC2, this direction for regional cooperation in disaster management was endorsed:

In recognition of the increasing incidence and severity of both natural, technological and manmade disaster risks, the meeting encouraged all RCC member countries to adopt a Total Risk Management strategy. Such a strategy involves a comprehensive approach to multi-hazard disaster risk management and reduction, and includes prevention, mitigation and preparedness in addition to response and recovery.

The meeting discussed action areas in which the RCC should advance the Total Risk Management approach, categorized as:

• Building community level programs for preparedness and mitigation
• Capacity building of national disaster management systems
• Cooperation with sub-regional mechanisms such as ASEAN, ICIMOD, MRC, SAARC and SOPAC, and
• Regional initiatives to create awareness and promote political will.

The RCC meeting also:

• recommended that the RCC be institutionalized
• endorsed the principle that senior officials of member country national disaster coordinating bodies be invited, that the RCC be expanded to include other Asian countries, and that multilateral and bilateral organizations be encouraged to participate
• agreed that future meetings should be organized annually at different regional venues
• decided that there should be a theme for each meeting, with field visits to see how the host country

Organizes its disaster management systems

• set RCC3 for India, with a focus on the theme of drought
• expressed appreciation for Australia's financial support of RCC2
• requested ADPC to continue as the RCC facilitator and convener, and to serve as a regional focal point and technical resource for the RCC, and
• supported the decision of the ADPC Board of Trustees to work towards the achievement of an international (inter-governmental) status organization.
  

Changing Concepts of Disaster Management

Before Focus on Individual Households	After Focus on Community & Strengthening its Organazation

First International Disaster Mitigation Cooperation Seminar in the Republic of Korea

The National Institute for Disaster Prevention (NIDP) of the Republic of Korea held an international seminar entitled "Building a Disaster Mitigation Collaboration in the 21st Century" on 6 November 2001 in Seoul. The speakers included Prof Jai-Woo Song of the School of Urban and Civil Engineering, Hongik University; Ms Cheng-Chung Hsia, Director General, Urban and Housing Development Department (UHDD), Taiwan; Mr Satoru Nishikawa, Deputy Executive Director, Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC); Mr Kamal Kishore, Director of the Information, Research and Network Support Unit, ADPC; and Mr Yang-Soo Kim of NIDP. Attended by nearly 300 officials from government departments and ministries, the seminar's discussions focused mainly on ongoing efforts to improve disaster response and mitigation capacities in different parts of Asia.

While presiding over the opening ceremony, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, Mr Young Shik Jeong, said, "With increasing severity of natural disasters, we can no longer look at disasters as unusual events that happen as a result of the will of God." He called for development of collaborative relationships at all levels to prevent disasters. The Director of NIDP, Mr Dongbok Kim, expressed his organization's commitment towards developing stronger collaboration with national and international institutions to enhance capacities for disaster prevention. The seminar was followed by a one-day field trip to Paju City, which has repeatedly been affected by floods over the last five years. Mayor Song Dal-Yong shared his experiences of putting in place structural and non-structural measures to combat floods in the city.

Partnerships for Disaster Reduction in South East Asia

Information Sharing and Networking: Southeast Asia Regional Disaster Management Practitioners Meeting

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Vietnam, with technical support from ADPC and funding support from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office, in collaboration with the Vietnam Red Cross, organized the Southeast Asia Regional Disaster Management Practitioners Meeting from 13-15 November 2001 in Da Nang, Vietnam. This was a follow-up initiative to the Hanoi meeting hosted by APS Vietnam in October 1999 on "Sharing Experiences: A Networking Approach to Disaster Preparedness", which aimed at establishing a regional network among disaster management practitioners in Southeast Asia, and the September 2001 Bangkok meeting on "Strategy for Information Exchange on Disaster Reduction" hosted by ADPC under its PDR-SEA project, which developed a regional information exchange strategy and identified areas of common concern for possible cooperation.

The Da Nang meeting brought together 56 participants from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, representing 11 DIPECHO partner NGOs, 24 other NGOs and three NDMOs. Discussion and experience-sharing enhanced participants' understanding of such key disaster management issues as extreme climatic events, damage assessment and needs analysis, community-based risk reduction measures, and the use of indigenous knowledge. Field visits to five communes in Thua Thien Hue Province provided an opportunity for participants to see how CODEV, Vietnam Red Cross, Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), and Development Workshop projects on community-based flood preparedness, mitigation, and rehabilitation and recovery have improved people's lives. The projects include reinforced houses, relocation houses, retrofitted primary school, flood shelters (used as nursery schools during non-flood times) fitted with lights and sirens for early warning, rescue boats built by local craftsmen, and a safe harbor. The experience should help improve the effectiveness of community-based risk reduction initiatives of participant NGOs, and facilitate coordination between NGOs and NDMOs.

Though the three-day meeting was exhausting, participants lauded the effort to bring together disaster management practitioners, especially from the NGO sector, with the inclusion of non-DIPECHO partners, to share information and experiences and strengthen linkages between organizations. Participants agreed to continue this effort through annual meetings. They strongly felt the need for national networks first, before the setting up of a formal regional network of NGOs. They agreed, however, on an informal regional network, mainly through PDR-SEA activities.

Upcoming Events

Applied Research grants for Disaster Risk Reduction
Starting early next year the University of Wisconsin-Disaster Management Center (UW-DMC) in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), and the Cranfield Disaster Management Center (CDMC), proposes to implement a one year Applied Research Grants Program in Disaster Risk Reduction. The Grant is being sponsored by the ProVention Consortium and managed by the World Bank's Disaster Management Facility (DMF). This grant is being provided with the aim that this activity will facilitate the identification of component professional with innovative ideas in disaster risk reduction, a competitive forum. The competition will be open to students and young professionals from developing countries. The UW-DMC, ADPC and CDMC, will be responsible for the Latin American and Caribbean Region, Asia and Africa respectively. The competition announcement will be sent out in January 2002.

South Asia Regional Disaster Insurance and Risk Management
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) has been assigned a six week research work on "Disaster Insurance and Risk Mangement in South Asia" by the World Bank's Disaster Management Center with the objective to contribute to the disaster risk reduction in the region. The assignment will involve collection and analysis of data and writing of a report on the disaster history and the economic and social impacts of natural disaster in the South Asia Region. The Research Program is scheduled to commence early next year.

World Bank Prevention Consortium, ADPC Workshop
A workshop titled "From Relief to Reconstruction-Developiong a Framework for Assessing Damage and Needs" is scheduled for March 2002, in Bangkok, Thailand. The proposed 4 day workshop will be jointly held by the World Bank, Prevention Consortium and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center. The workshop will focus on the reconstruction needs assessment requirements arising from mainly floods, cyclones/typhoons, and earthquakes and will draw on the experiences from the recent disaster events in Asia. The proposed output of the workshop will be:

Improved damage and reconstruction needs assessment methodology
Guidelines for reconstruction program planning, management and implementation
Identification of future training needs.