The 2nd ISDR Asia Partnership Meeting of the year 2014 was held on 2 to 4 December 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting discussed the way forward from the 6th Asia Ministerial Conference, preparation towards the 3rd WCDRR and most importantly preparing towards the post 2015 framework adoption and implementation.
The ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP) is an informal multi-stakeholder forum with the role to facilitate implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in the Asia region. It was launched in 2004 and subsequently expanded in 2007 to include regional inter-governmental organizations, governments, civil society organizations, UN and international organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors. Since 2007, the IAP has emerged as the support mechanism for the Asia Regional Platform for DRR and has been meeting twice a year.
The fundamental role of the IAP has been: (a) to support the political leadership of the regional platform through series of Asia Ministerial Conferences (AMC- DRR); (b) to support the biennial HFA progress review that includes national and regional progress monitoring and monitoring the implementation of the joint regional action plans and recommendations from AMC-DRR; (c) to improve regional coordination and coherence through regional experience sharing.
The 6th Asia Ministerial Conference provided certain guidance to the region to further (a) Local level action; (b) enhancement public investment; (c) engagement of private sector; and (d) engagement of all stakeholders. The implementation of the commitments made in the 6th AMCDRR also requires to be aligned with the future direction of the upcoming post 2015 DRR framework to be adopted in March 2015. Countries and stakeholders will be challenged with the implementation of the same.
With the changing requirements of the post 2015 period in mind, the existing ISDR Asia Partnership forum will need to revisit its structures and functionality to further strengthen it; with this in mind, this IAP meeting aimed at:
- processing the feedback received from IAP members on the way forward from 6th AMCDRR towards and beyond the World Conference;
- discussing the required changes in the IAP mechanism in preparation of the post 2015 DRR framework implementation;
- sharing updates and experiences from governments and partners.
IRDR co-chaired the Asian Science, Technology and Academia stakeholder group. See background document: Bangkok Declaration-6th AMCDRR, Annex X: Science, Technology and Academia Stakeholders
Participants at the meeting were mainly the IAP members, namely representatives of national governments (mainly HFA Focal points and/or their alternates) , organizations of the key stakeholders groups, sub-regional inter-governmental organizations, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), bilateral donors, UN and other international organizations, as well as civil society organizations and media.
For more details: IAP Meeting Documents