Parima hosts disaster preparedness event as region steps up risk reduction efforts

Parima will hold its annual conference on disaster preparedness and response on 29 July at the HKAM Jockey Club Building in Hong Kong. The risk and insurance management association said the event will bring together experts and practitioners, government officials, scientific and academic institutions, the NGO sector and the private sector, to share experiences and discuss strategies for disaster preparedness and resilience-building in the face of emerging challenges and complexities. Disaster preparedness and response is particularly important in the Asia-Pacific region, as Commercial Risk Asia’s risk and insurance manager readers and Parima members are fully aware. Hans Guttman, executive director of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), the intergovernmental organisation that works to build the resilience of people and institutions to disasters and climate change impacts in the region, recently stated in the ADPC’s annual report that in 2018, disasters hit Asia and the Pacific hardest yet again. “From deadly heatwaves to devastating hurricanes, cyclones, floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis, seven of the ten worst disasters in the world occurred in this region. Over 11 million people were affected by floods alone. For Indonesia, 2018 was the deadliest year in over a decade, with over 4,200 people dead or missing due to a Tsunami,” he pointed out. “A key lesson learned in 2018 is that the Disaster Risk Management capacity of countries and communities should match the magnitude of hazards and the vagaries of nature, to substantially reduce disaster-related mortality,” added Mr Guttman. The ADPC reported that last year it helped 21 countries build their disaster risk reduction (DRR) systems and create institutional mechanisms and capacities to become resilient to hazards. ADPC said its capacity-building initiatives reached more than 6,000 people through 51 projects and 135 events implemented with support from 129 partners. The ADPC also works with the Asian Preparedness Partnership, a body that was established in conjuction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and aims to improve the preparedness and emergency response to disasters in Asia. This joint effort formed national-level partnerships, which built the capacity of 1,000 participants through 48 events held across six countries last year, in learning about the status of sector-specific disaster preparedness. The ADPC also reported that it continues to work on promoting gender and diversity in DRR throughout 2018. At the end of last year, it launched an effort to build resilience through inclusive and climate-adaptive disaster risk reduction in Asia-Pacific, known as the BRDR. This is a five-year programme that aims to improve regional cooperation in DRR and climate resilience, by sharing best practices and tested approaches among countries in the region. “The BRDR programme puts gender equality, rights-based and pro-poor approaches at the forefront of DRR,” explained the ADPC. The programme is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and implemented jointly by the ADPC, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. Another highlight of the ADPC’s work in 2018 was further progress with its SERVIR-Mekong programme, which provided the government of Lao People's Democratic Republic with satellite maps to identify the most-affected areas following a dam collapse. This was carried out in collaboration with USAID and NASA. Mr Guttman also gave a good example of how the ADPC’s work has practical and life-saving results. He said a major crisis was averted in 2018, because of a timely landslide risk assessment of the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Based on the risk assessment carried out by the ADPC and partners, concerned authorities relocated more than 25,000 of the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees to safer places, just prior to a landslide that demolished at least five shelters and damaged 30 more.

Parima hosts disaster preparedness event as region steps up risk reduction efforts

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