Ready for recovery: Learning from recent disasters and setting the priority needs for Southeast Asia

As part of the commemoration of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, a two-day forum is being organized to provide an opportunity for discussing and learning from the experiences on recovery and reconstruction in the ASEAN sub-region in order to help inform countries future R&R decisions. This forum intends to gather key government representatives on disaster reduction, recovery and reconstruction from Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other ASEAN Member States, technical experts, and the international development partners to discuss the recovery and reconstruction concerns, and the priority needs of Southeast Asian countries to be met over the next few years. Additionally, the discussion forum aims to discuss some emerging issues, concerns, as well as opportunities on recovery and reconstruction and post disaster needs assessment mechanisms.

The proposed discussion forum will be organized under a multi-year regional project on Strengthening Disaster Risk Reduction Capacities of Selected ASEAN Countries funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme. The project seeks to contribute to the implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) by addressing the risk assessment as well as the recovery and reconstruction aspects of DRR in Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines.