[dmwg] UN, World Bank to help Southeast Asia reduce disasters

[Vern Weitzel]

http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/52132/2009/04/22-152607-1.htm

Fri, 15:32 22 May 2009 GMT
UN, World Bank to help Southeast Asia reduce disasters

22 May 2009 15:26:00 GMT
Written by: Thin Lei Win

Residents are evacuated from their flooded homes in the Indonesian capital of 
Jakarta, January 2009. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi (INDONESIA)

Earlier this month, the World Bank, the United Nations and the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an agreement to cooperate on reducing the 
risk of disasters in the region.
Pooling funds and knowledge is an emerging trend in efforts to prevent 
disasters, which are causing growing human and economic losses, according to a 
recent landmark report by the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction 
(ISDR).
"In this day and age, no one institution can claim to have a monopoly on either 
the expertise or the resources. And we simply can't waste resources by all of us 
doing the same thing," said John Roome, the World Bank's director for 
sustainable development in East Asia and the Pacific. "If you can find ways of 
getting different organisations to collaborate...this offers all sorts of 
opportunities and benefits."
Under the agreement, which lasts five years, the World Bank will provide 
technical assistance through helping develop disaster risk reduction (DRR) 
frameworks, sharing good practices and managing assessments after a disaster.
The ISDR will input guidance and monitoring on DRR, and the ASEAN secretariat 
will support and coordinate member countries. The aim is to bring DRR and 
disaster management issues to the forefront of government agendas.
This week, the three partners unveiled the plan at their first forum and 
training workshop in Bali, which was attended by international relief agencies 
and U.N. and ASEAN officials.
RISK FINANCING
Southeast Asia has always been susceptible to disasters. From the devastation 
wrought by last year's Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the 2004 tsunami, to storms 
in the Philippines, landslides in Vietnam and flooding in landlocked Laos, the 
region is regularly beset by natural hazards.
Worse, such risks are - if anything - likely to increase as climate change 
brings more extreme weather patterns.
Yet the concept of "risk financing" is new in the region, with Southeast Asian 
countries currently resorting to a pay-as-you-go system, according to Roome.
"You have a disaster, you have a certain amount of impact and you basically pay 
for it at that point in time," he said. "There's no risk pooling and insurance 
mechanism in place."
One example of doing things differently is a livestock insurance mechanism 
operating in Mongolia under which communities club together to cover losses from 
livestock death due to severe weather. The government reimburses the community 
if losses reach a certain level, and the World Bank steps in in the event of a 
catastrophic loss.
The ISDR and ASEAN secretariat hope the new agreement will help Southeast Asian 
nations benefit from the knowledge and practical lessons generated by such schemes.
"One of the biggest issues is the lack of capacity, both within the ASEAN 
secretariat and certain parts of the member states," said Jerry Velasquez, 
regional coordinator for ISDR.
ISDR is also reaching out to new sectors such as private businesses, which have 
never really been engaged in a systematic way but have been implementing 
corporate social responsibility programmes that strengthen communities' capacity 
to withstand disasters and reduce risks.
AMBITIOUS PLAN
Velasquez said the aim is to make good use of the World Bank's considerable 
resources at country level so that all ASEAN states will have in place 
legislation and a strategy for DRR, which they will be rolling out with 
strengthened capacity by 2015.
This may seem like an ambitious plan, especially in a region with extremely 
inequitable levels of development, governance and poverty. Still, ISDR says 
governments are showing greater levels of commitment to reducing disaster risk.
Indonesia, for example, not only adopted legislation on disaster management in 
2007, but has also set up a national body to deal with disasters.
And the ASEAN agreement on disaster management and emergency response (AADMER), 
adopted in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, has been ratified by all members 
except Brunei and the Philippines, which are expected to do so by next May. If 
this happens, the agreement will be the world's legally binding instrument on DRR.
More important than signatures on a piece of paper, however, is the level of 
national understanding, awareness and willingness to implement disaster 
reduction practices. This will be challenging and requires a long-term commitment.
"There are a lot of things that can be developed, but we cannot make the 
decisions," said Velasquez. "The countries will have to make these decisions. 
But what we're promising is that we will support them once they are made."
Roome agreed political will is essential. "We're happy to help, to motivate, to 
advocate, to provide analytics, to provide financing, but it's only going to 
work if the countries see the importance and take the actions needed to move 
forward," he said.
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