Asian Preparedness Partnership (APP): an inter-agency platform of National Disaster Management Organizations, civil society networks, and the private sector from six most disaster-prone Asian countries. The APP aims to promote regional cooperation and to strengthen preparedness for response & recovery at local levels. Representatives of governments, civil society networks, and private sector organizations will meet on 28 August to finalize the governance structure, functions and services of the APP. The inter-agency meeting will be followed by a formal announcement of the establishment of APP on 29 August.
Partners from Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Pakistan will also deliberate on a strategic roadmap for strengthening the disaster preparedness for response and recovery capacities of the local and national level organizations in their respective countries.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID OFDA, the APP is being launched under the ADPC’s flagship project ‘Strengthening Emergency Response Capacity of Local Humanitarian Actors in Asia’. The goal of this program is to improve disaster preparedness for response and recovery in Asia by strengthening the interface and partnership between government, local humanitarian organizations and the private sector. The program will provide stakeholders with the opportunities of forming partnerships, sharing good practices and lessons learned, building capacities, and networking.
Mr. Hans Gutman, Executive Director of ADPC, said that in view of the scale of disaster risks in Asia and the Pacific, more and more partnerships, collaborations and networks are needed to be formed to address the complex issue of disaster risk in the region. “ADPC has facilitated various national and regional knowledge exchange networks in the past, including Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) on Disaster Management and we believe APP will be a valuable addition,” he said and added “APP will serve as an information exchange forum to further enhance disaster preparedness and recovery in the region.”
One Stop Knowledge Hub: building disaster resilience through information exchange
To facilitate efficient and timely communications between different networks across the region, ADPC has also established a ‘One Stop Knowledge Hub’ for information exchange on disaster preparedness for response and recovery to be run and managed by APP. The online portal will host disaster preparedness, emergency response and recovery related knowledge products such as good practice documents, lessons learned, guidelines, and toolkits, e-learning courses, rosters of experts etc. from APP partners.
An orientation and brainstorming workshop will take place on the sidelines of APP launch to familiarize the communications focal points from partner networks and organizations with the ‘One Stop Knowledge Hub’ and develop an information sharing mechanism.
Understanding status of the Humanitarian ecosystem: A regional synthesis report of the ‘Baseline Assessment’ from six countries will also be shared at the launch of the APP that will allow partners understand the status of the humanitarian ecosystem and identify the humanitarian capacity in six countries. Baseline assessment was carried out to assess systems, and inter-agency coordination mechanisms before, during and after disasters in selected countries in Asia.
