IRIN Reuters AlertNet 30 Aug 10;
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BANGKOK, 30 August 2010 (IRIN) - Greater regional cooperation and decentralization are key to meeting the challenges of disasters in Asia, specialists say.
"The Philippines has expertise in earthquakes and Vietnam in flooding," Adelina Kamal, head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) [http://www.aseansec.org/], disaster management and humanitarian assistance division, told IRIN in Bangkok. "If each country focuses on their specialties and shares that with the rest of the region, we'll be better off," she said.
Her comments coincide with the Post-Nargis Lessons Learning Conference held by ASEAN and the UN Economic Social Commission Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) [http://www.unescap.org/] on 30 August in the Thai capital.
With Asia as the continent most at risk [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89305] - accounting for the highest number of disaster-related deaths since 1980 - the conference shared the lessons learned from Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis and examined ways to institutionalize them at a regional level.
"How we work together regionally is critical to how we can manage future disasters," Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, said.
Cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar in May 2008, killing 140,000 people and severely affecting the lives of more than 2.4 million across the country's Ayeyarwady delta.
SEAN facilitated international assistance efforts by working with the government and UN within the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), a collective response that was unprecedented in its regional coordination.
"Cyclone Nargis provided an opportunity for ASEAN to challenge its collective response to a major disaster in a member state," Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN's Secretary-General, said.
But with a variety of threats facing the region, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90280] concern remains that disaster preparedness efforts will always be focused on the most recent disasters.
"We always plan the future according to the latest disaster," Margareta Wahlström, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, told IRIN in June. "We have to make sure we don't get dragged away by that."
Accordingly, the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response was ratified in December 2009.
Kamal says the spirit of the agreement is to share information and expertise to improve preparedness for any kind of humanitarian emergency.
The agreement comprises provisions for disaster risk identification, monitoring and early warning, prevention and mitigation, preparedness and response, rehabilitation, technical cooperation and research, mechanisms for coordination, and simplified customs and immigration procedures.
It also provides for the establishment of an ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) to undertake operational coordination of activities under the pact.
