in June 1997 to discuss the specific activities of the proposed central disaster reduction
system. Once again, key personnel from the disaster reduction bureaus of 23 countries
attended the meeting, whose overall goal was to promote cooperation in disaster reduction
efforts through specific actions. A proposal was made at the meeting to establish an office inJapan to serve as the secretariat for the proposed system.
(6) Establishment of the ADRC
With momentum gathering from this series of meetings, the Japanese government
discussed the organization, budget, and other aspects of the proposed office with the othercountries involved. With the cooperation of Hyogo Prefecture, the Asian Disaster Reduction
Center was officially established in Kobe on July 30, 1998.

1-2. Composition
The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) was established in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, in
1998, with mission to enhance disaster resilience of the member countries, to build safe
communities, and to create a society where sustainable development is possible. ADRC works
to build disaster resilient communities and to establish networks among countries through many
programs including personnel exchanges in this field.
The Center addresses this issue from a global perspective in cooperation with a variety of UN
agencies and international organizations/initiatives, such as the United Nations Secretariat forInternational Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the United Nations Office for theCoordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
At the outset, ADRC was comprised of 22 member countries, four advisor countries, and anobserver organization. Armenia joined later, in August 2000, followed by the Kyrgyz Republic
in July 2002, Pakistan in July 2005, and Yemen and Bhutan in December 2007, Azerbaijan in2009, Maldives in 2010, and the Republic of Iran in 2012 bringing the number of member
countries to 30. In March 2004, the US joined as the fifth advisor country to ADRC.

30 Member Countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India,Indonesia,Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyz, Lao PDR,
Malaysia Maldives, Mongolia,Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam,Yemen
5 Advisor Countries: Australia, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, United States of America
Observer: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)

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1. Asian Disaster Reduction Center

Fig. 1-2-1 Member Countries

1-3. Main Activities
ADRC engages in the following basic activities:(1) Information Sharing Provision of disaster information
 Sentinel Asia – A space-based disaster management support system in the Asia-Pacificregion Promotion of the GLobal unique disaster IDEntifier (GLIDE) system Organization of international meetings(2) Human Resource Development
 Organizing conference, workshops, and trainings on disaster risk reduction
 Program for inviting visiting researchers from member countries(3) Building Community Capabilities
 Development and dissemination of tools for encouraging community involvement
 Development of Public and Private Partnership and Business Continuity Plan (BCP) forsmall and medium-sized enterprises
 Assistance with the activities to further strengthen all stakeholder coordination
mechanisms

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