Activity Report: Area & Country >> Central Asia & Caucasia

11-17 February 2012 (Dushanbe, Tajikistan)

 

Since 2009, ADRC has initiated a pilot project of DR Policy Peer Review with the aim of developing DRR capacity of ADRC member countries by sharing information and strengthening the relationship among member countries. This year Tajikistan was selected as target country for the review project of the third year. After the submission of country report, reviewer team had visited target countries to conduct interview surveys.

The ADRC reviewer team, composed of Prof. Hiroshi Fukuoka (Associate Professor, Research Center on Landslides Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University), Dr. Tai-Hoon Kim (Analyst, National Disaster Management Institute, Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Republic of Korea), Mr. R.M.S. Bandara (Head, Landslide Studies & Services Division, National Building Research Organisation, Ministry of Disaster Management, Sri Lanka) and Ms. Miki Kodama, senior researcher of the ADRC visited Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The team visited various ministries and institutions involving in landslide DRR activities, including Committee of Emergency Situation (ADRC's counterpart in Tajikistan), to examine how they have been making the efforts for reducing landslide disasters by government and non-governmental organizations in Tajikistan. Then, the team conducted field survey at the affected area by the 2009 large-scale landslide disaster in Khuroson district, and prepared a draft report of the survey result with all findings and recommendations. A workshop was held for getting opinion and comments to finalize the report as well as introducing good practices for landslide DRR in Japan, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka. It provided a very good opportunity for exchanging opinions each other.

This project aims at developing the mutual learning process among the ADRC member countries instead of one-way learning. After the survey missions, reviewer teams will compile survey reports and send them to target countries and then to ADRC member countries to enhance cross-fertilization.

ADRC would like to express its sincerest gratitude to all of those who have made precious contribution to this project this year.

25-28 October 2010, Incheon, Republic of Korea

ADRC participated in the 4AMCDRR held in Incheon, Republic of Korea from 25 - 28 October 2010. More than 900 participants comprising ministers of disaster management from 53 Asia-Pacific and European nations, representatives from UN agencies, international organizations, and NGOs attended the conference. The Prime Ministers of Republic of Korea and Kingdom of Bhutan were among the high level participants.

Under the theme "Disaster Risk Reduction through Climate Change Adaptation" (DRR through CCA), the conference was organized into three sessions: Session 1 "Raising awareness and building capacity for DRR & CCA", Session 2 "Developing and sharing information, technology, sound practices, and lessons learned in climate & disaster risk management", and Session 3 "Promoting integration of DRR & CCA into development for green growth". ADRC chaired Technical Session 1 and co-chaired the High Level Round Table of Session 1 (HLRT1) with the Maldives and Bhutan. 

The outcomes of the technical session emphasized two key concerns. One is the need for training for both government officials and civil society organizations. The other is the need to learn from local and indigenous peoples on how they manage risk and the need to support their efforts in raising awareness. In this regard, it was suggested that DRR and CCA should be framed within local and national development planning. At the HLRT1, the ministers expressed problems of their countries, including issues on raising awareness and building capacity. HLRT1 recognized that problems vary from country to country, and that solutions need to be localized. HLRT1 had drawn commitments from delegates to work together and share technical knowledge. Recommendations from Technical Session and HLRT1 were reflected into the conference outcome documents: Incheon Declaration, Incheon Regional Roadmap or REMAP, and Incheon Action Plan aimed at establishing climate resilient disaster risk management systems by 2015 that will contribute to sustainable development at the regional, national and community levels.

ADRC also co-organized various side events at 4AMCDRR including "Incorporating space-based information and technologies into DRR and CCA" with UNOOSA, "Asian Film Festival on Disaster Management" with GFDR and ADPC, and "A tool for Better Recovery: Introduction to Guidance Notes on Climate Change Adaptation and Recovery" with IRP. The next AMCDRR will be held in Indonesia in 2012 and the progress of REMAP will be reviewed accordingly.

For more information on ADRC's activities during the 4th AMCDRR, please see the ADRC Highlights to be issued shortly.

(2010/10/25 16:50)

27 April 2010  Almaty, Kazakhstan

Central Asia is a region vulnerable to multiple natural disasters including devastating earthquakes, floods, landslides/mud-slides, avalanches that have caused economic and human losses across the region. The Central Asia nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan agreed on the need for stronger regional cooperation on issues of disaster risk management and agreed to start a dialogue on the regional centre for disaster preparedness and response. Eventually, a working group was formed to start consultation on the establishment of a regional disaster preparedness and response coordination centre.

Against this background, the Third Consultative Meeting on the Establishment of a Regional Disaster Preparedness and Response Coordination Centre was organised, jointly by Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Sub-regional Office for Central Asia, on 27th April in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) has been supportive of this initiative since January 2005 when the establishment of a centre was first proposed at the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe, Japan. ADRC attended the third meeting along with the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, various UN bodies (UNDP, UNISDR, UNHCR), GTZ and IFRC.
During discussion, the participants discussed some specific issues relevant to the draft agreement and regulation but agreed upon a urgent need to establish the centre. Consequently, they have agreed to set up a working-level standing committee sometime this year to solve particular problems.

ADRC plans to provide relevant information based on its own experience as an organisation to promote multinational cooperation for disaster reduction across countries in Asia and explore ways to cooperate with the Centre once in such fields as training and human resource development.

(2010/05/10 13:10)

 

8 March 2010 (Bangkok, Thailand)

The new web system that been produced as part of Sentinel Asia Step 2 for the last two years will start its operation from April 2010.
The Sentinel Asia Secretariat, ADRC and other relevant agencies held a meeting at Geo-informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, GISTDA, in Bangkok, Thailand, to share information on the new web system.
The new web site is located at; 
https://sentinel.tksc.jaxa.jp

(2010/03/30 13:20)

21-23　December, 2009 (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)

The ADRC mission visited the Ministry of Emergencies to discuss the monitoring of nature disaster through space utilization and to further promote coordination in that field.

 We also visited the Central Asian Institute of Applied Geosciences (CAIAG) to discuss the utilization of the Space Technology for monitoring of nature disasters.  

(2009/12/24 17:30)

7-8 October 2009 (Dushanbe, Tajikistan)

The ADRC participated in the 4th ECO (Economic Cooperation Organization) International Conference on Disaster Risk Management which was held on 7-8 October 2009 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among the members. The ECO was expanded to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in 1992, and have accelerated the pace of regional development through their common endeavors.
The Conference was attended by the participants from Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz, and Tajikistan, as well as the related organizations. They shared their recent initiatives for the disaster risk management, especially in the areas of establishment of the national platforms and climate change adaptation, and discussed further strengthening the cooperation for DRR in the ECO region. Further, they proposed the ECO regional strategy for promoting DRR activities through discussion.
The ADRC made a presentation in the session of regional cooperation and coordination, and expressed continuous support for regional cooperation in the Central Asia and Caucasus.

15-16 April 2009 (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

ADRC participated in the 2nd Consultative Meeting on Establishment of Regional Disaster Preparedness and Response Coordination Centre in Central Asia which was organized by Kazakhstan government and UN OCHA in Almaty Kazakhstan on 15-16 April 2009.

In the meeting, the participants including representatives from Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Republic of Tajikistan discussed specific conditions and definition towards establishing of the Coordination Centre which has been agreed through several meetings on mutual cooperation for disaster risk reduction in the Central Asia.

The delegates from the Central Asian countries were actively involved in the discussion. The documents for establishment of the Centre were gone through one article by one article for reaching consensus. Further, through the discussion, the Centre's name has been changed as "the Central Asia Coordination Centre on Disaster Response and Risk Reduction" in consideration of the aspect that the Centre would also play important role for disaster risk reduction in the area.

(2009/04/20 10:40)