This month, the Lao PDR National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) together with the UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee Country Team organised a high-level meeting in Vientiane to discuss priorities for disaster management risk reduction and the development of a Comprehensive Disaster Management Plan.
Prasith Dethpommateth from the National Disaster Management Office provided a comprehensive presentation on the country profile, hazards and disasters in the Lao PDR. He noted that, “although good practices of disaster risk reduction and management exist in the Lao PDR, the current systems and initiatives need to be strengthened.”
Dethpommateth also pointed out that government institutions dealing with disaster management should be afforded the authority and resources they require to fully execute their responsibilities before, during and after disasters.
Other presentations focused on the current disaster management structure in Lao PDR and regional/international developments such as the Hyogo Framework for Action and the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response. The International Federation’s Asia Pacific IDRL Unit presented on the need for improving legal preparedness for disasters, in particular to address issues of receiving international assistance in the wake of a large scale disaster.
Following a series of working group discussions, the meeting concluded that a revision of the legal framework should be a core component of the Disaster Management Plan. Support for its development will be provided through the Federation’s “Legal Preparedness Project on Disaster Response and Communicable Disease Emergencies,” due to commence in Laos soon.
The IDRL team is planning a follow-up visit later in August to continue this process.