Editorial Dear Readers, Greetings from Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). The beginning of 2008 has not been shy amidst severe snow storms in China and Central Asia, landslides in Indonesia, tropical cyclone in the Fiji islands and the continued Avian Influenza spread in South Asia.   During the decade of 1996-2006, Asia accounted for 41 per cent of all reported disasters, 72 per cent of industrial accidents, 61 per cent of landslides/avalanches, 59 per cent of earthquakes/tsunamis and 47 per cent of miscellaneous accidents.  Asia accounts for a disproportionate number killed through these disasters, totaling a recorded 916,856[1].  Clearly the region requires continued attention and focus on DRR interventions to reduce impacts and vulnerabilities and it remains a growing challenge to integrate disaster risk reduction into development planning.  ADPC will continue to face challenges in pursuit of preparedness, early warning, education & awareness, innovative risk reduction applications and involvement of the concerned communities.   On that note, I now inform you about our activities for the month of January 2008 and I am pleased to invite you to browse through our website www.adpc.net for more ADPC news updates, publications, events and training calendar for 2008. Dr. Bhichit Rattakul Executive Director a.i. Asian Disaster Preparedness Center  [1] Source: EM-DAT, CRED, University of Louvain, Belgium  Building Partnerships ADPC visits new ESCAP chief, 10 Jan, Bangkok Dr. Bhichit Rattakul, Executive Director, a.i. accompanied by a high level delegation called upon the new Executive Secretary of UNESCAP, Ms. Noleen Heyzer.    ADPC hosts senior Indian Army delegation, 11 Jan, Bangkok ADPC hosted a delegation of Senior Indian Army Officers led by Colonel Raj Shukla, Director Military Operations, Army Headquarters, New Delhi to discuss the Indian Army’s response to its expanding role in disaster relief operations.  Forecast and warning methodologies, relief and rescue trends, linkages/experiences between conflict situations and humanitarian Disasters were discussed with ADPC and subsequently with meetings hosted by UN-OCHA. ADPC collaborates with Habitat for Humanity International, 15 Jan, Bangkok ADPC is collaborating with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), represented by Mr. Charlie Ayco, Mr. Scott Peterson, and Ms. Chloe Pearse on a joint networking event for the 2008 World Urban Forum in China.  ADPC in action Asian Program for Regional Capacity Enhancement for Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM), 3-18 Jan, India A joint training course cum expert workshop on landslide inventory and hazard and risk mapping took place in Dehradun, India. Norwegian Geo-technical Institute (NGI), Geological Survey of Canada (CGS), Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), Central Building & Research Institute (CBRI), Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) and Road Development Authority (RDA)-Sri Lanka made presentations under the RECLAIM Phase II project. The course was jointly organized by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), IIRS and ITC-The Netherlands, NGI and ADPC.  This workshop is under the Asian Program for Regional Capacity Enhancement for Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM), funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy.  Strengthening community-based approaches to the management of Avian and Human Influenza (AHI), 22-23 Jan, Vietnam ADPC will be on mission to Hanoi, Vietnam to raise awareness of the AHI project among stakeholders in Vietnam and to seek input to the development of the project from various key stakeholders. Key people and organizations to meet will be the officials from Academy for Educational Development (AED), Agronomes & Vétérinares sans Frontiéres (AVSF), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CARE International in Vietnam, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC/RCS), World Health Organization and Asian Development Bank who provided valuable information on community-level AHI activities in the country. Collaborating Partners are Asian Development Bank, CARE, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Rescue Committee, many other stakeholders, and ADPC.   Meeting of the Regional Steering Committee of the Multi-hazard Early Warning System for Tsunami and Hydro-meteorological Hazards in Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, 24-25 Jan, Thailand The members of the Regional Steering Committee of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Tsunami and Hydro-meteorological Hazards in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia facilitated by ADPC will meet with the following agenda: Review progress of the Regional Program Implementation Plan Present status of national early warning systems of participating countries Update the implementation plan for the next 6 months Develop a strategic plan to sustain Regional EWS operations The Regional Steering Committee consists of national early warning focal points for both geological and hydro-meteorological hazards from 14 countries. It was constituted in July 2006 to provide policy guidance, monitor, and evaluate the implementation of the ADPC-facilitated regional program on establishing end-to-end early warning for tsunamis and hydro-meteorological hazards for disaster preparedness and mitigation in the two regions. UN agencies, namely the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Meteorological Organization, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific will also participate in the meeting.   ADPC implements new projects, Bangladesh Seismic hazard and vulnerability mapping of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet city corporation area Contingency planning for Earthquake hazard Training, Advocacy and Awareness raising with regard to Earthquake andTsunami hazard Inception report for all the three projects were submitted in January 08 and Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting was held on 14 January 08 in Dhaka to review the reports presented. TAG meeting was organized by CDMP Bangladesh.  ADPC also organized a partners meeting on 13 January 08 in Dhaka, for all the partners involved in these projects as international and national consultants/counterparts. Partners presented were: AIT-Thailand, OYO International Corporation-Japan, NSET-Nepal, BDPC-Bangladesh,      NIRAPAD-Bangladesh, Dhaka University, Chittagong University of Engineering Technology and Sylhet University.  The projects are funded under the Bangladesh Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP).  Update on the Program for Hydro-Meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE), Pakistan The Program for Hydro-Meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE) has demonstration projects in Hyderabad (Pakistan) and Kalutara (Sri Lanka), as well as Chittagong (Bangladesh), Dagupan (Philippines) and Da Nang (Viet Nam).  The program is funded and supported by the US Agency for International Development-Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID-OFDA). PROMISE-Bangladesh conducted a school simulation on 22 January 08 to promote disaster preparedness initiatives. The script mainly focused on various disaster risk management issues, including pre-disaster preparedness activities, actions to be taken in emergency situation, rescue and evacuation, and shelter management. PROMISE-Pakistan organized a health and hygiene workshop in Maheshwari Colony on 17 January 08, an advocacy and mobilization seminar in collaboration with SAFWCO in Hyderabad on 23 January 08, and an orientation program for school children of Government High School, GOR Colony, Hyderabad. PROMISE-Philippines organized a Climate Change Orientation on 10 January 08, to make the city’s mitigation and preparedness plans more sustainable.  The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Government of the Philippines, held a follow-up activity validating the integration of the DRM into the Comprehensive Development Plan on 10 to 11 January 08; this is under the PROMISE Mainstreaming DRR project.  Dagupan City, the city demonstration site for PROMISE-Philippines, hosted a study tour by Oxfam from 17 to 18 January. For other activities, please refer to Disaster Mitigation in Asia Issue 55  Click here to view Training and Learning Training course and workshop on landslide inventory, hazard and risk mapping and mitigation, 10-11 Jan, India ADPC conducted the training under the national training activities of the Asian Program for Regional Capacity Enhancement Landslide Impact Mitigation (RECLAIM Phase II). The training course and workshop is being organized jointly by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands, Geological Survey of India (GSI), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Norwegian Geo-technical Institute (NGI), Geological Survey of Canada.  ADPC conducts training on Disaster Risk Communication (DRC), 21-24 Jan,  Indonesia ADPC conducted training at Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia for volunteers and staff of Palang Merah Indonesia (PMI) on DRC. The training was funded and supported by Canadian Red Cross (CRC), Aceh. The training provided a comprehensive, balanced approach blending theory, concepts, definitions, exercises, debates, poster making, video, simulation and presentations. The opening ceremony was covered in the local news paper, Sinar Indonesia.  It is intended that 10 participants are chosen to further disseminate awareness and thus, communicate disaster risks to their respective communities. The training materials were translated into Bahasa and were provided in soft & hard copy form. On the final day of the training, the group visited a village, amidst sugar cane and rice fields, where the communities are undertaking mitigation measures for floods that were initiated by ECHO and Danish Red Cross. The village head man briefed on how special task forces are formed in the community during an emergency. The village head man’s office displayed risk maps with under laying techniques. It also had on display names, pictures of community members responsible for various activities in an emergency.  National Consultation Workshop on Coastal Community Resilience, 15 Feb, Myanmar ADPC, in collaboration with the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, will facilitate a national consultation workshop on coastal community resilience in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 15 February 2008. The workshop will bring together forty representatives from government agencies and non-governmental organizations. The Coastal Community Resilience (CCR) initiative promotes tsunami and other hazard readiness through the collaboration of national and local emergency management agencies, coastal managers, training institutions, and local communities. It is a part of a broader program on establishing a multi-hazard early warning system for tsunami and hydro-meteorological hazards for Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, which is being facilitated by ADPC and funded by the Regional Tsunami Trust Fund through UNESCAP. Calendar of Events ADPC conducts Cross-Border Exercise Management Workshop, 18-22 Feb, Thailand The purpose of the Cross-Border Exercise Management workshop is to strengthen the capacity of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to manage influenza outbreaks in humans in international border provinces by providing exercise management training to a group of approximately 35 people, mostly health professionals, from these countries. Following are the objectives: To build participants’ expertise in exercise management   To provide participants with the skills and knowledge to design, conduct and evaluate discussion and functional exercises To practice these skills and knowledge in the development and conduct of exercises focusing on outbreaks of influenza in humans in international border provinces To adapt and refine the draft exercise materials utilized in the workshop for discussion exercises to be held in 2008 To prepare a work plan for the preparation of exercises in 2008   Climate Forecast Applications for Disaster Mitigation in Timor-Leste Stakeholder Meeting, 25 Feb, Timor-Leste The Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of USAID is providing support to expand the Climate Forecast Applications for Disaster Mitigation Program to Timor-Leste. ADPC and the National Meteorological and Geophysical Agency of Timor-Leste will convene a Climate Forecast Applications for Disaster Mitigation in Timor-Leste Stakeholder Meeting in Dili. The meeting will bring together 20 participants from various government agencies, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations in order to constitute a national working group to guide program implementation and discuss program activities.      FAO expert meeting on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, 28-29 Feb, Italy ADPC will attend the expert meeting on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management in Rome, Italy. The meeting will be hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It is one of a series of expert meetings being organized to support a high-level conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bio-energy to be held in Rome in June 2008.      ADPC holds Regional Consultative Committee for Disaster Management (RCC), 8-10 May, Colombo, Sri Lanka The 7th Meeting of the Regional Consultative Committee for Disaster Management (RCC) will be held from Thursday, 08 May to Saturday, 10 May in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The meeting is being co-hosted by the Government of Sri Lanka and ADPC with support from the Government of Australia.   The special theme of the 7th RCC Meeting will be on rights based, Community led disaster risk management. The Meeting will also have sessions on lessons learnt from recent disasters, progress made on the implementation of the RCC Program on Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development (RCC MDRD), the ongoing global campaign on Hospitals Safe from Disasters and on progress on implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in Asia in light of the Delhi Declaration on Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia, adopted at the Second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, New Delhi, October 2007.  5th Disaster Management Practitioners (DMP) workshop for South East Asia, 2-4 April 2008   The workshop theme focuses on Building on the themes of previous DMP workshop, the 5th DMP workshop will focus on “Sustaining Partnerships: Meeting the Challenges of Scaling-Up CBDRM Programs.” The theme will provide continuity to the earlier DMP workshops held in 2006 and 2007: 3rd Disaster Management Practitioners’ Workshop for SEA 2006-Institutionalizing CBDRM in Government Policy Making, Planning and Program Activities: Building Partnerships for Risk Reduction 4th Disaster Management Practitioners’ Workshop for SEA 2007-Learning from Community-Based Practices: Strengthening Policy and Partnerships Download Brochure ADPC Website Resources ADPC Reading Resources: Camalig, Albay adopts Disaster Risk Reduction   eNews: Disaster Mitigation in Asia  (Issue No. 55)   Echoes-Volume 4 No 4 Emergency Management Planning for Schools under the School Based Disaster Risk Management Project in Sri Lanka Vacancy:  Systems Analyst, Early Warning System, Deadline 15 Feb 2008 ADPC Regional Training Schedule for 2008 Visit www.adpc.net Email adpc@adpc.net