Da Nang hosts 42nd meeting of ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management

The event attracted the participation of Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community Ekkaphab Phanthavong, 60 foreign delegates from ASEAN member states, the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Center), the bloc's development partners–China, South Korea, and Japan.

Under the chair of Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep, the participants discussed the implementation progress of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Program for 2021-2025.

They reviewed the building and realization of documents, mechanisms, and activities involving regional cooperation in this field.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen said that as the Chair of ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management, Viet Nam is promoting the theme of "From Response to Anticipatory Action and Resilience: ASEAN Journey towards Global Leadership in Disaster Management".

The event will be followed by the 18th meeting of the AHA Center Governing Board, the 3rd ASEAN Disaster Resilience Platform (ADRP) meeting, and meetings between the ACDM and the development partners.

Southeast Asia is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world.

According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, natural disasters including floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts, earthquakes and tsunamis have caused countries in the region to suffer an average annual economic loss of at least US$86.5 billion.

Statistics between 2012 and 2020 showed that nearly 3,000 natural disasters have occurred in Southeast Asia.

As one of the fastest growing regions in the world with rapid urbanization, population growth, the degraded natural environment degradation along with climate change have exposed Southeast Asia to natural disasters that are increasingly severe in intensity and frequency.

Consequently, cooperation between ASEAN member states in disaster management has become a prominent highlight in multi-sectoral cooperation and commitments in the ASEAN region as well as with stakeholders outside the region. 

Disaster risk reduction is also one of ASEAN's top priorities to achieve the goals of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals./.