NEAT Working Group on
Regional Cooperation on Disaster Management in East Asia
- Resilient Nations and Communities against Super Disasters -Final ReportTokyo27 July 2012

Introduction
In the past three decades, catastrophic and fatal disasters have been increasing. Most ofthem took place in Asia, e.g. China 2008, Indonesia 2004, Myanmar 2008, Bangladesh 1991,Pakistan 2005, Iran 1990 and 2003. Most of them were induced by earthquakes.
On March 11, 2011, a super earthquake of magnitude 9.0 also struck off the coast ofEastern Japan. The earthquake and the tsunami that followed it devastated Eastern Japan, leaving a
total of 19,000 people dead or missing, and a total of 250,000 houses were lost or severely damaged.
Asia, particularly East Asia, is an eminent disaster-prone area, and is continuing to suffer
damage and losses due to super disasters. People’s survival, dignity, livelihood, and profits fromlocal development have been gravely affected and are facing serious consequences.
The United Nations designated the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural DisasterReduction (IDNDR) to decrease the loss of life, property destruction and social and economic
disruption caused by natural disasters. In 1994, the UN World Conference on Natural Disaster
Reduction was held in Yokohama, Japan, and adopted the “Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World.”
The second UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction was held in Kobe in 2005, and adopted thepresent Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities toDisasters. The “Hyogo Framework for Action 2005 – 2015” resolves to pursue the substantial
reduction in disaster losses, in lives and in the social, economic and environmental assets ofcommunities and countries.
The first NEAT Working Group (WG) on “Regional Cooperation on DisasterManagement” was held in Tokyo, Japan on 7 July 2011 to promote mutual understanding on thecurrent situation and the future challenges of regional cooperation in disaster management, thereby
developing concrete and feasible policy recommendations to be submitted to the ASEAN Plus ThreeSummit. Twenty experts from ASEAN+3 member countries, the ASEAN Secretariat and thesponsoring organization, the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR), took part in the WG
meeting.
Based on the discussions at the meeting, the NEAT WG on “Regional Cooperation onDisaster Management in East Asia” summarized the following recommendations;1.

Improve and strengthen existing schemes and initiatives for regional cooperation such as

AADMER and bilateral international cooperation for disaster reduction and climate change.
2.

Explore possibilities for more integrated and comprehensive approaches to disastermanagement at the regional level.
3.

Encourage information sharing on early warning and appropriate technologies, technology
1transfer, and financial and technical assistance for disaster reduction in the region.
4.

Strengthen and extend cooperation and coordination in search and rescue, disaster relief,

and reconstruction at the regional level. Particularly, strengthen capacity for coordination between
international assistance and domestic response activities in the disaster-stricken areas.
5.

Promote joint research, training, and emergency response exercises and encourage

capacity building and development of human resources in the region.
6.

Implement a regional pilot project to build the capacity of local governments andcommunities in several pilot cities in the region through developing disaster scenarios and actionplans through community based disaster activities.
7.

It is expected that the Japanese Government should lead the regional cooperation as statedabove, and suggested by the ASEAN Plus Three Summit in 2010.

After one year has passed since the 2011 East Japan Earthquake Disaster, Japan has been
facing various problems on recovery and reconstruction such as how to recover from the catastrophic
disaster and how to reconstruct resilient nation and communities against the super disasters, which
will occur at very low frequency but with great impact. Such lessons should be shared among themember countries, and it will be important to discuss how the regional cooperation can be promotedto build up resilient nations and communities against super disasters.
With the above background, the NEAT Working Group (WG) on Regional Cooperation on“Disaster Management in East Asia - Resilient Nations and Communities against Super Disasters -”was held in Tokyo, Japan on 27 July 2012. The objective of the meeting was to discuss how to build
up resilient nations and communities against the super disasters in the region and how the member
countries can cooperate to reduce the impact of such super disasters, thereby developing concreteand feasible policy recommendations to be submitted to the ASEAN plus Three Summit.

Discussions on Resilient Nations and Communities against Super
Disasters
Nineteen experts from ASEAN+3 member countries, the ASEAN Secretariat and thesponsoring organization, the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR), took part in the WG
meeting. The WG meeting began with opening introductory remarks by Amb. HIRABAYASHI
Hiroshi, Vice President of JFIR, and Dr. OKAZAKI Kenji, Professor of National Graduate Institutefor Policy Studies (GRIPS), followed by three topical sessions.

21. Session 1 on “Early warning and safe evacuation”
In order to reduce the number of tsunami victims by, it is most important to issue thewarning as soon and as precisely as possible so that people can evacuate to safer evacuation sheltersor parks. In Japan, early warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis have been developed andoperated. The monitoring and warning system for flood and typhoon disasters have been also welldeveloped. These systems could be also used in developing countries with some modification. The
critical issue is that many people who received the early warnings would not evacuate promptly andeventually be killed by natural disasters, particularly by tsunamis.

2. Session 2 on “Motivation of the local communities to invest to build resilient societies against
disasters”
To reduce the damages caused by earthquakes, retrofitting is most effective. However,people are not easily motivated for retrofitting due to various reasons. Similarly, people are noteasily motivated to invest in safety, thinking that severe disasters may not occur in the near future,and that they will be safe. In principle, the local governments take the responsibility to promotedisaster reduction. However, as they have various other high priorities in their administration, they
are not motivated for disaster reduction. Therefore, motivation of the local communities to invest forsafety is the most critical issue to build resilient societies against disasters.

3. Session 3 on “Commitment of international societies and the national and localgovernments”
In order to reduce the damages, particularly casualties, caused by super disasters, policies
for disaster risk management should be changed from response oriented to mitigation oriented (frompost-disaster activities to pre-disaster activities). For this purpose, the international societies and thenational and local governments in the region should commit themselves to promote disaster
reduction so that there are strong incentives for people and organizations to take proactive actions forsafety before super disasters take place, causing serious human and economic damages.

Policy Recommendations for Regional Cooperation
Based on the discussions above, the NEAT WG on “Regional Cooperation on Disaster
Management in East Asia - Resilient Nations and Communities against Super Disasters -”summarized the following policy recommendations;
31.

Transfer and develop appropriate technologies and knowledge to tackle super disasters throughinternational technical cooperation such as the activities of Japan International Cooperation
Agency. Information sharing and close coordination among the international organizations,
national governments, and local communities should be also promoted in the region.

2.

Introduce the early warning systems in the region and improve its operation and accuracy. Massmedia should be more involved in risk communication as efficient and effective risk message isessential for safe and prompt evacuation. Disaster education and awareness raising are essential
so that people can take prompt and appropriate actions for evacuation and protection of theirlives after receiving the warnings.

3.

Promote community based disaster risk management (CBDRM) activities.
- Broader stakeholders should be invited in CBDRM.
- Applicable and affordable techniques should be developed for CBDRM.
- Financial capability of the communities should be enhanced for disaster risk management- Socially cohesive and cooperative communities should be built up to address disasters- Communal property rights should be secured to encourage common investment in disaster riskmanagement

4.

National and local policies for disaster risk management should be developed, reflecting localconditions. Particularly, economic and social incentives should be developed to motivate thelocal communities to invest in disaster risk management.

5.

Establish the focal point in every country for regional cooperation and coordination. Strengthen
the network of the focal points through various activities such as the international workshops
and seminars.

6.

Military forces are the asset for regional assistance in case of super disasters. The protocols todispatch and accept the military forces should be established from the view point ofhumanitarian activities.

[END]

4List of Participants

BruneiPg Hj Sabli PG DAMIT
Senior Superintendent
Natural Disaster Management Centre

China
GUO Yanjun
Research Fellow, East Asian Studies Center
China Foreign Affairs UniversityJapan[WG Members]*Director of the WG

OKAZAKI Kenji*
Professor
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

ANDO Shoichi
Director
International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IISEE), Building Research Institute (BRI)

IKEYA Hiroshi
Professor
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

NARAFU Tatsuo
Senior Advisor
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)5[The Japan Forum on International Relations]
HIRABAYASHI Hiroshi
Vice President, JFIR
Executive Vice-President, The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC)KIKUCHI Yona
Senior Research Fellow, JFIR
Acting Executive Secretary, CEACNISHITATE Takashi
Senior Research Fellow, JFIR

TAKAHATA Yohei
Research Fellow, JFIR

Korea
CHOI Choongik
Associate Professor
Kangwon National University

Laos
Alounkone BOULOMMAVONG
Acting Director of Training Division
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Malaysia
Wan Portiah WAN HAMZAH
Senior Fellow
Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS)
6Myanmar
Thein Htay Aung
Deputy Director,Relief and Resettlement Department
Ministry of Social Wlefare, Relief and Resettlement

Philippines
Danilo ISRAEL
Senior Research Fellow
Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS)

Singapore
TAN Seng Chye
Senior Fellow
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)

ThailandTavida KAMOLVEJAssociate
Dean for Academic Affairs
Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat UniversityVietnam
Tran Viet THAI
Director of the Center for Foreign Policy and Regional Studies
The Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
In Alphabetical Order of Country NameASEAN Secretariat
Adelina KAMALHead of Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance Division7