Twenty Years ago, at 07:58:53, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami caused widespread destruction and mobilized an enormous effort for humanitarian assistance never seen in the past. The severity of the human suffering was accompanied by widespread destruction of physical, social and productive infrastructure caused by the action of the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami waves that spread havoc covering a wide surface area in the shores of the IndianOcean and affected several countries including the African coast.

Twenty Years after, today at Phang Nga in Thailand, Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) joins the ASEAN Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami. The two days event between 26-27 December 2024 pays tribute to those who lost their lives and assets and recounts the efforts of community empowerment and strengthening disaster resilience.

View the presentation PDF: [Click here]

Risk reduction and preparedness efforts which ADPC helps carry out at the community level are a crucial component of strengthening individual and collective resilience to disasters and have played an important role in creating a more secure and disaster resilient Asia.

Over the past four decades, ADPC has worked towards its vision of safer communities and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction by working towards safer schools, building the capacity of local responders, establishing and maintaining systems for early warning, improving health facilitypreparedness as well as aiming to engage the private sector in disaster preparedness efforts.

The lasting impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the unprecedented losses demands more attention and investment in disaster preparedness and prevention. The efforts to deal with the disaster landscape in Asia and the Pacific need to be intensified and targeted to protect people from current hazards and anticipate future changes. Although preparedness and response have improved and will improve further, there is also a need to mobilize finance and other resources to invest in disaster risk reduction to help build a future in which disasters are managed well and where the recurrent cost of response is minimized through resilient infrastructure and communities.

ADPC advocates for policies that ensure communities are not just aware of but actively prepared for and able to respond to and recover from disasters effectively. This empowers communities, making them an integral part of the disaster management process. The ADPC Strategy 2030 is a testament to our collaborative spirit, identifying the major threats posed by disasters to regional sustainability and prosperity. It is guided by the priorities identified by ADPC’s Regional Consultative Committee (RCC), the identified needs of RCC member countries, and beyond, through engagement with other international and regional organizations and the major international frameworks such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Agenda 2030, Paris Climate Accord, and the World Humanitarian Summit.