Building Effective Emergency Response Mechanisms Through Multi-Stakeholder Coordination

COVID-19 has shown the world how closely economic and social well-being and prosperity are related to an effective public health system. The pandemic has also propelled various stakeholders at the global, regional, national, and local levels as important players to collaborate for effective response. The pandemic has underscored the importance of enhancing collaboration and effective partnerships among all sectors and stakeholders, as well as for the leaders across the public, private, and civil sectors to act together.

The pandemic has especially propelled the local actors to be at the forefront of preparedness and response interventions in their respective countries. While the Ministry/ Department of Health and specifically formed command centers/ task forces were the main leading agencies for COVID-19 response in countries, the local governmental partners, especially the National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs), as well as the private sector and local civil society organizations (CSOs) also played a critical role in the overall response.

Besides being impacted by the pandemic the countries, especially in South and Southeast Asia are also being continuously impacted by other hazards such as floods, typhoons, forest fires, etc. in the past year. This has reinforced the need for countries to plan comprehensive Covid-19 sensitive disaster preparedness and emergency response strategies. Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), an autonomous international organization, is playing a key role in strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and coordination for effective emergency response in the countries as well as promoting regional cooperation.

This panel will enhance understanding of how the coordination mechanisms for emergency response in the countries are strengthened through (1) multi-stakeholder partnerships and cooperation wherein local actors take a lead role and work collaboratively in planning, building, and implementing effective emergency response mechanisms; and (2) broad coalition of stakeholders collaborating with the public health systems for COVID-19 response by bringing in their respective expertise, knowledge, and perspectives.