National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in South East Asia recently endorsed a new initiative aimed at building “regional capacity and collaboration for community resilience” in South East Asia. The three year plan is a collaborative undertaking between the 11 South East Asian National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), and the IFRC, and seeks to reduce the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable communities. It also aims to build upon the existing achievements of National Societies in disaster risk reduction so that they can advocate more strongly at the national and regional levels.
Supported by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and CRC, the activities undertaken as part of this initiative will reinforce regional partnerships and cooperation with organizations such as ASEAN. At the global level, such actions contribute to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) Priority for Action #1, namely to “ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a strong institutional basis for implementation.” At the regional level, it contributes to the high-level DRR goals of ASEAN, IFRC, CRC and DFATD, including the integration of gender and environment perspectives into all DRR policies, plans and decision-making processes.
Disaster law features in one of the three pillars of the three year plan, which seeks to build the capacity of the National Societies as well as their national government partners, to “understand, harness and communicate community DRR concerns through sound evidenced-based advocacy messages and concrete activities nationally (and regionally), including disaster law development.” A series of disaster law activities have therefore been developed as part of this initiative, including disaster law trainings, the development of advocacy materials, and further disaster law research.
The Asia Pacific Disaster Law Programme has been working closely with CRC and the IFRC South East Asia Regional Delegation (SEARD) to develop the implementation plan and first annual work plan, building upon consultations with National Societies from the region. An introductory workshop in Bangkok in December 2013 gathered the various stakeholders involved (CRC, IFRC SEARD, NS Leaders and Asia Pacific Disaster Law team) to identify and prioritize key activities to take place as part of this initiative.
This is an exciting opportunity for National Societies in South East Asia to continue to grow and expand their work in disaster risk reduction, humanitarian diplomacy, communications, gender and disaster law. Many of these National Societies have already taken significant steps to work with their national authorities to improve legal frameworks for disaster management and response, including Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. This regional initiative will provide them with technical and financial support to continue this momentum, and to contribute meaningfully to improved disaster resilience at the community, national and regional levels.