ASEAN: stronger collaboration and innovative approaches needed to enhance disaster management capabilities

ASEAN: stronger collaboration and innovative approaches needed to enhance disaster management capabilities

Source:  ASEAN Secretariat News

SINGAPORE, 19 August 2018 – ASEAN called for stronger multi-stakeholder collaboration and deeper exploration on innovation and new technologies to enhance disaster management capabilities and resilience at the fourth ASEAN Strategic Policy Dialogue on Disaster Management in Singapore on 17 August.

ASEAN Secretariat organised the annual dialogue in cooperation with the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) to commemorate the World Humanitarian Day on 19 August. More than 140 participants from the governments, private sector, regional and international organisations, ASEAN Dialogue Partners, academics and civil society organisations attended the event.

Singaporean Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam and ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General for Socio-Cultural Community Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee delivered their opening remarks under the theme of Strengthening Disaster Resilience ASEAN through Effective Cooperation and Innovation, highlighting the challenges for ASEAN in responding to human-induced and multiple natural disasters simultaneously.

The dialogue reaffirmed the importance of strengthening multi-stakeholder collaboration and explored the prospects of innovation and new technologies in enhancing disaster management capabilities and resilience in the region, including through prevention and mitigation of climate change impact.

A highlight of the event was the high-level panel discussion on the main theme where the panellists emphasised the fundamental elements of partnership in achieving common goals through identification of comparative advantages, value-added complementarities among different partners. The session also touched on critical issues in community empowerment with particular focus on engaging the youth sector as the catalyst for innovation.

During the session, Head of Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Geneva Professor Hugo Slim underscored the four modes of innovation, namely value, policy, product, and process, highlighting ASEAN’s concept of resilience as an exemplary policy innovation in the region. Similarly, former Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction Margaretta Wahlstrom reaffirmed that ASEAN had set a good model in building an effective multi-lateral cooperation and partnership to be referred by other and global organisations.

In addition to the high level panel session, the private sectors and other participants exchanged views on cultivating innovation to enhance ASEAN’s disaster management capabilities, including the importance of accelerating efforts in risk transfer mechanism, enhancing disaster risk insurance mechanism. They also underlined inter-dependability and scaling-up of public private partnership through community-based disaster risk management approach. Participants recognised the importance of engaging whole society approach such as women, children, elderly and disable people in disaster risk reduction as well as fostering the new ASEAN Culture of Prevention which helps build trust and understanding among relevant humanitarian actors on the ground.
                                                          
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