JAKARTA, 28 November 2019 - Since its creation in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has doubled in size and grown in influence to become the leading regional organization for multilateral cooperation. Along with this growth, attention turned to addressing impediments to the social and economic prosperity of its member states. Chief among them is the threat of disasters, both sudden and slow, which chip away at the region’s development gains.
Southeast Asia is also one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions of the world. Partially situated on the infamous ‘ring of fire,’ it faces risks from tsunamis and earthquakes, in addition to climate-related hazards such as floods, cyclones and droughts. According to ASEAN, the region suffers damage in excess of US$4.4 billion each year on average as a consequence of disasters resulting from natural hazards. This figure is projected to rise as a result of climate change according to the Asia Pacific Disaster Report 2019, which estimates that a 1 per cent point increase in the drought index alone can lead to a 0.62 per cent point decrease in sub-regional GDP.
To address these disaster risks, ASEAN has developed a number of frameworks and mechanisms, the most significant being the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER), which came into force in December 2009 as the first legally binding regional instrument in the world. ASEAN’s current efforts are guided by the ‘ASEAN Community Vision 2025’ which sets resilience as an overarching objective across all pillars, and the ‘ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management’, which charts the strategic direction for the implementation of the AADMER.
To inform the development of the AADMER Work Programme 2021-2025, the ASEAN Secretariat and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), which leads the Prevention and Mitigation Pillar of the ASEAN-UN Joint Strategic Plan of Action on Disaster Management, organised on 25-26 November the first ASEAN Technical Consultation on Risk-Informed Sustainable Development, which took place in Jakarta, Indonesia.