NEAT Working Group on“Regional Cooperation on Disaster Managementin East Asia”

Final ReportTokyo7 July 2011

Introduction
On March 11, 2011, a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck off the coast ofEastern Japan. The earthquake and the tsunami that followed it devastated villages and towns in
Eastern Japan, leaving a total of 21,000 people dead or missing (as of 10 July 2011). In addition, thequake and the tsunami caused severe damages to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station,causing a stoppage in power supply as well as nuclear radiation concerns. In addition to the damages
caused by the quake and tsunami, the power stoppage and nuclear radiation are causing serious
damages to the Japanese economy.
The occurrences of great disasters have brought about a colossal number of victims not
only in Japan but in other countries in East Asia as well. In December, 2004, “The Sumatra
Earthquake”- a giant earthquake of magnitude 9.3 with an epicenter off the southwest coast ofSumatra in the Indian Ocean- struck, resulting in a disastrous tsunami. The unprecedented disaster
affected people in twelve countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh,India, and Sri Lanka, resulting in a figure of over 280,000 people dead or missing. Large-scale
natural disasters have occurred successively in Asia following the Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami;
a great earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 killed around 80,000 people; in 2008 the great Myanmar
flood swept through the country, leaving over 130,000 casualties. That same year a huge earthquake
hit Sichuan, China, killing approximately 90,000.
The UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction was earlier held in Kobe in 2005, andadopted the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations andCommunities to Disasters. The “Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005 – 2015” resolves topursue the substantial reduction of disaster losses, including human casualties as well as in the social,economic and environmental assets of communities and countries. According to the “HyogoFramework for Action,” the most prioritized actions are (1) Governance: organizational, legal andpolicy frameworks (2) Risk identification, assessment, monitoring and early warning (3) Knowledge
management and education (4) Reducing underlying risk factors (5) Preparedness for effective
response and recovery. These five fields should be further promoted in East Asia through effective
disaster management cooperation.
On August 30-31, 2010, the “ASEAN Plus Three International Conference on Disaster
Management” was convened in Tokyo, with the participation of officials and academic experts fromthe ASEAN Plus Three countries and observer countries such as India and Australia as well as otherinternational organizations. In the meeting, several proposals were suggested, such as to encourage
1each ASEAN Plus Three country to further strengthen regional cooperation on disaster managementby sharing information, expertise and technologies as well as allocating necessary resources withappropriate priorities. The Meeting reviewed the progresses and challenges in the first decade of theHyogo Framework for Action 2005 – 2015 in the region and identified new challenges in the next
half decade of the Hyogo Framework for Action through discussion.
With the above background, the NEAT Working Group (WG) on “Regional Cooperation
on Disaster Management” was held in Tokyo, Japan on 7 July 2011. The objective of the meeting
was to promote mutual understanding on the current 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 Three Summit. Twenty experts fromASEAN+3 member countries, the ASEAN Secretariat and the sponsoring 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 Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), followed bythree topical sessions as follows and a wrap–up session.
(1) Session 1 “Growing Issues on Disaster Management in East Asia”(2) Session 2 “Disaster Risk Assessment and Preparedness”(3) Session 3 “Governance and Regional Cooperation for Disaster Management”

Discussions on Regional Cooperation on Disaster Management
1. Session 1 on “Growing Issues on Disaster Management in East Asia”
East Asia is highly prone to natural disasters such as floods, typhoons/cyclones,
earthquakes, and tsunamis and a great number of people are killed or severely impacted by thedisasters every year. Unprecedented disasters have likewise been occurring in recent years in several
East Asian countries. The impacts of the disasters are contingent on the economic and social
conditions of the communities and country. This session discussed recent natural disasters in somecountries in order to promote mutual understanding on the current situation and future challenges ofdisaster management.

2. Session 2 on “Disaster Risk Assessment and Preparedness”
Disaster risk assessment is the first step of disaster management. When the stakeholders
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understand their own risk from natural disasters, they would be able to prepare for the impacts ofnatural disasters. The government officials should understand how their country is vulnerable todisasters in order to decide the appropriate safety level of infrastructure and buildings. The
homeowners should understand how their houses are vulnerable to natural disasters in order todecide the safety level of their houses. This session discussed methodologies and policies for disasterrisk management and how the assessment results are reflected in preparedness.

3. Session 3 on “Governance and Regional Cooperation for Disaster Management”
For effective disaster management, each country should make commitments and promote
institutionalization for disaster management at a multi-disciplinary basis. A large natural disastermay affect several countries at the same time, and the impacts of the disaster may affect surrounding
countries. Once a large disaster occurs, neighboring countries would extend their hands for response,recovery, and reconstruction assistance. In East Asia, where many countries share similarhydrometeorogical and geological hazards and similar social and economic conditions, it is expectedthat the regional cooperation for disaster management will be very effective and efficient. Thus, thissession discussed governance issues in disaster management for various countries and futurechallenges for the regional cooperation in disaster management in East Asia.

4. Summary of discussions and proposals
The participants introduced recent disasters, outlined general causes of disasters including
increasing risks as a result of unsustainable economic growth and effects of global climate as well as
lessons learned from their respective countries for mutual understanding. Of more significance,
disaster management systems were extensively discussed: the economic, social and physical aspects
of disaster management, structural measures such as the use of early warning systems, developmentof hazard maps, etc and non-structural measures, such as disaster education, evacuation drill as wellas the disaster management cycle namely emergency response, and recovery/reconstruction.
Particularly, the Japanese experts pointed out to the damages encountered, recovery andreconstruction processes undertaken, and some lessons of the Great East Japan Earthquake Disasteron 11 March 2011.
Disaster management system should address all the disaster phases of prevention andmitigation, preparedness, emergency response, recovery and rehabilitation. Very often, the phases of
the cycle overlap and length of each phase depends on the severity of disaster (or expected disaster).
The Hyogo Framework for Action particularly pointed out to the importance of “mitigation” for3

disaster reduction. In this respect, the idea of “resilience” as a pro active stance towards risks wasadded emphasis during the discussion.
The discussion also recognized that although many countries face similar hazards (ordisasters), actual vulnerability to risk is uneven across the region as well as within countries.
Governance, infrastructure, economic development/poverty, existing level of capabilities were someof the factors highlighted in terms of vulnerability. What is important is the need to “self-manage” asfar as possible. Therefore at the national level, with clear roles and responsibilities of the nationaland local governments, the relevant stakeholders of the public and private sectors should cooperate
in implementing the various disaster countermeasures.
At the regional level, the ASEAN Secretariat and other participants also highlighted thetrend of natural disasters within the region and the national, regional and international initiatives fordisaster reduction. Most deadly disasters occur in Asia and these catastrophes are seeminglyincreasing. More than 1,200 disasters have caused 415,000 deaths in East Asia from 1970-2009.
With regard to the possible regional cooperation for disaster reduction, various issues werediscussed as follows.
- Utilization of modern technologies such as internet, mobile phones etc., which led to a dramaticincrease of public expectations regarding managing risk, responding to disasters, andinformation-sharing.
- Improvement of forecast and early warning with modern technology.
- As the local governments and communities are primarily responsible for disaster management,
motivation of local governments and communities is essential.
- Uneven growth of civil society across the region.
- Donor funding and the need to manage quick-response funds.
- Role of national military forces in responding to disasters, role of Red Cross and Red CrescentSocieties as intermediaries, and the interaction between scientists and practitioners.
- The role of the business community was questioned.
- Preparation for unpredictable disasters, including those with extremely low occurrence probability
but extremely high impact.
-Coordination of international assistance and domestic civil affairs.

- Strengthening of existing regional initiatives such as the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster
Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) and its Work Plan (2010-2015), AHA Center,
Joint Declaration on ASEAN Defense Ministries on Strengthening ASEAN Defense Establishments.
- Reaffirmation of Japan’s commitment to lead the cooperation in East Asia, as suggested by the4

ASEAN Plus Three Summit in 2010.

Based on the discussions, some proposals for regional cooperation were made as follows.
- There is a need for more integrated and comprehensive approaches on disaster management at theregional level. This can be achieved by linking regional economic, security, military, scientific,
resource management cooperation, and by strengthening the current cooperative framework on
climate change and disaster management. Information sharing on disasters and early warning,
capacity building on disaster management and environmental impact assessment would all be critical
for regional cooperation in disaster management. It was also proposed to strengthen and extend
cooperation in search and rescue, disaster relief, and reconstruction at the regional level.

- In order to motivate local stakeholders to take action and invest in disaster reduction, assessment
and understanding of the risk, Community-based disaster management (CBDM) would be necessary
In terms of regional cooperation, the need to build capacity of the local governments andcommunities was proposed through developing disaster scenarios and action plans (to be replicatedin several pilot cities in the region).
- Promote joint research and training, regular disaster and emergency response exercise, andcoordination in the region.
- Encourage dissemination of information and sharing mechanism, transfer of technology, capacity
building, financial and technical assistance in the region.
- Promote community-based projects and strengthen the role of the National Disaster Management
Office for better preparedness and response during a disaster.
- Develop action plans, operational regulations and procedures to cope with catastrophic disasters.
- Make more efforts on reinforcing existing mechanisms and mobilizing as well as utilizing limited
resources to address the disaster issues.
- Build capacity and develop human resources.

Policy Recommendations for Regional Cooperation
Based on the discussions above, the NEAT WG on “Regional Cooperation on Disaster
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 disaster5management at the regional level.
3.

Encourage information sharing on early warning and appropriate technologies, technology
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, andreconstruction 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 and communities
in several pilot cities in the region through developing disaster scenarios and action plans
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.

[END]

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List of Participants
CambodiaYAUNG CHAN Sophea
Deputy Director
Political and Security Division, General Department of ASEAN Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and International Cooperation

China
WANG Zhenyao
Dean
Philanthropy Research Institute, One Foundation & Beijing Normal University

WEI Ling
Associate Professor of International Relations
Director of East Asian Studies Center China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU)Japan[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 Building ResearchInstitute
KAMOTO Minoru
Chief Researcher
Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk
Management7

ONIMARU Takeshi
Assistant Professor
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)[The Japan Forum on International Relations]
ITO Kenichi
President ＆ CEO, JFIR
President of the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC)HIRABAYASHI Hiroshi
Vice President, JFIR
Executive Vice-President, CEACKIKUCHI Yona
Research Fellow, JFIR
Acting Executive Secretary, CEACOTA Toru
Research Assistant, JFIRKorea
KIM Kee SeokProfessor
Department of Political Science, College of Social Sciences Kangwon National University

LaosPhimpha KEOMIXAY
Director of Training Division
Institute of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Malaysia
Wan Portiah WAN HAMZAH
Senior Fellow
Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS)

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

SingaporeJohn WONG
Professorial Fellow and Academic Advisor
East Asian Institute National University of Singapore

ThailandPanadda PUCHAROENSILP
Scientist
Senior Professional Level Research and International Cooperation Bureau,
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation

Vietnam
TO Minh Thu
DirectorCentre for International Integration and Development Studies, Institute for Foreign Policy andStrategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
In Alphabetical Order of Country NameASEAN Secretariat
Dedy WIREDJA
Senior Officer, Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Division ASEAN
Secretariat

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