JOINT STATEMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN) FOR THE THIRD UN WORLD CONFERENCE ON DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

aseanlogo14-18 March 2015, Sendai, Japan

 

 

  1. On behalf of the ASEAN Ministers in charge of Disaster Management, it is my pleasure to convey our deepest appreciation to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for the highly organised preparations and outstanding arrangements for the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction here in Sendai City, Japan.

 

  1. 2015 is a critical year not only for the ASEAN region but for the world as opportunities converge to engage our peoples in meaningful dialogue and collectively secure a more resilient future. We are at the crossroads of deepening our understanding of the changes in our world where responding to disasters is no longer sufficient as demands for building safer and resilient communities are becoming imperative.

 

  1. The adoption of a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction presents an opportunity to expand our understanding and link our initiatives with our efforts to address the impacts of climate change, shape our aspirations for a world without poverty, and improve our humanitarian actions towards the first World Humanitarian Summit. This is a watershed moment for all of us — a unique opportunity for us to ensure that these concurrent post-2015 processes will produce coherence and alignment across policies, practices and partnerships for a world that is devoid of hunger and poverty, development that is transformative, inclusive and sustainable, and societies that are resilient and adaptive in the face of current and future disaster and climate risks.

 

  1. ASEAN is likewise responding to these challenges that are facing the world today. Our region is home to about 625 million people. With 10 economies at varying stages of development but all sharing vast potential for greater economic growth, ASEAN is a major global hub of manufacturing and trade and one of the fastest growing consumer markets in the world. ASEAN, however, is also one of the most at-risk regions in the world. Around 100 million people have been adversely affected by catastrophic events since year 2000. And every year during this period, ASEAN has incurred losses of a staggering 4.4 billion US dollars on average due to disasters. The increasing severity of disasters, as further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, intensify the vulnerabilities of the peoples of ASEAN, especially the poor and marginalised.

 

  1. To face these challenges and particularly to continue investing in resilience building and climate change adaptation in order to preserve the fruits of socio-economic development, we have resolved to consolidate our community by building upon our regional integration process towards a more cohesive, inclusive, and resilient ASEAN Community that is united in peace and prosperity and plays an active and responsible role on the regional and global stage.

 

  1. Hence, ASEAN has vigorously implemented both the Hyogo Framework for Action in the past 10 years. The ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response manifests our region’s commitment to the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. ASEAN as a region has progressively (i) strengthened its institutions, legal and policy frameworks to put in place a stable foundation for disaster risk management; (ii) mainstreamed disaster risk reduction in policies governance, in relevant sectors as well as in practice, and (iii) enhanced our capacities in terms of preparedness for effective response, mitigation and resilient recovery.

 

  1. ASEAN will continue building on this foundation. For instance, the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance or AHA Centre was established in November 2011 and the ASEAN disaster emergency stockpile in Subang, Malaysia in December 2012. Both mechanisms were tested and deployed in actual disaster operations with the Myanmar earthquake and Typhoon Bopha in 2012, and more recently, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 and Malaysian floods in January this year. The AHA Centre and ASEAN stockpile and other regional mechanisms will be further strengthened and enhanced towards making “ASEAN responding as one” a reality, noting that this is in line with Priority 4 of the draft one of the post-2015 framework for DRR.

 

  1. To be more prepared and improve its joint effective response to help a member in distress, ASEAN regularly conducts regional disaster simulation exercises such as the ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise or ARDEX and the ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise or ARF DiREx.

 

  1. Noting Priority 4 again in the draft one, ASEAN also helps beyond disaster response to save lives and protect assets during a disaster and also engaged in recovery and rehabilitation. Upon activation, the ASEAN Secretary-General acts as the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator to marshal resources not only for relief and response but also for long-term recovery. ASEAN is currently implementing a programme to assist Super Typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda affected communities in the Philippines. One of the components now being undertaken is the Adopt-a-Municipality for Resilient Recovery Planning in which ASEAN has “adopted” four affected municipalities in the provinces of Leyte and Iloilo to assist them to build back better and smarter, embed risk reduction in recovery and rehabilitation, and bounce forward.

 

  1. Financing disaster losses for recovery and providing immediate liquidity in the aftermath of a disaster is also a priority of ASEAN. We are now going to implement the ASEAN Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Programme as part of the risk financing and insurance road map of the region to leverage national and regional resources as well as the international insurance market.

 

  1. The collection and management of disaster information and sharing such information using standard disaster terminology is also being pursued by ASEAN, echoing Priority 1 in the draft one. As a region concerned with trans-boundary hazards, AHA Centre utilises satellite-based information to monitor such hazards, analyse impending risks and facilitate targeted response.

 

  1. Given these achievements, the ASEAN Community is in the process of charting the ASEAN Post-2015 Vision, which will further underline the importance of becoming a community that is resilient with enhanced capacity and capability to collectively respond in a timely manner to emerging trends and challenges for the common good and one that empowers peoples and institutions to become fully responsive, adaptive and prepared to address the challenges of natural and human-induced disasters, impacts of climate change, and other economic and social shocks, to reduce poverty, vulnerabilities, and exposure to risks.

 

  1. As all of us gather here today as one community, ASEAN notes the fair consideration that is given to experiences gained through regional programmes and agreements within the implementation of HFA and national strategies and plans for disaster risk reduction. ASEAN likewise welcomes all inputs to complete the assessment and review of the implementation of HFA, to identify modalities of cooperation based on commitments to implement a successor framework for DRR and to determine the means to periodically review and monitor its implementation.

 

  1. We appreciate the draft one of the post-2015 framework for DRR, noting in particular the reformulation of expected outcome and goal and the emphasis given to actions that will focus on local, national, regional and international levels, finally giving visibility to all levels of implementation and underscoring the role of multiple stakeholders working in different scales with updated priorities for action that builds substantially on a decade of lessons and experiences from implementing the Hyogo Framework of Action even as they are forward-looking to meet the challenges at hand.

 

  1. Finally, ASEAN stands committed to adopt and implement a concise, focused, and action-oriented stand-alone outcome document that articulates the cross-cutting nature of disaster risk reduction and the imperative to attain mutually reinforcing complementarities among disaster risk reduction, climate change and sustainable development.
 
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