Regional Stocktaking and Mapping of DRR Interventions for Asia and the Pacific workship, Bangkok, 24-25 September 2012

Dominic Leong and Sytske Claassen participated in the Regional Stocktaking and Mapping of DRR Interventions for Asia and the Pacific workshop held in Bangkok on 24-25 September 2012. Dominic introduced ESCAP’s flagship web portal on disaster risk management, the Asia-Pacific Gateway for Disaster Risk Management and Development (GATEWAY). ESCAP is currently working in partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) to develop an inventory of hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment outputs at the national and sub-national levels on the GATEWAY, and the objective of the workshop was to develop a clear set of strategies to successfully execute the project. Dominic and Sytske also facilitated a discussion on communication and outreach strategies that would help ensure that the information included on the GATEWAY reaches the target audience.

The workshop brought together risk assessment experts, representatives from national disaster agencies and disaster experts from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Global Risk Identification Program (GRIP), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and ADPC, providing key networking opportunities that will further strengthen the development of the GATEWAY. As a result of the workshop, ESCAP is exploring a potential partnership with GRIP in order to strengthen each organization’s respective disaster risk portals.

The proposed inventory of hazard, vulnerability and risk assessments at the national and sub-national levels is part of the ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP) project on Regional Stocktaking and Mapping of DRR Interventions in Asia and the Pacific. The online inventory will facilitate the mainstreaming of risk assessments, as a recognized and key component of disaster risk reduction, into development planning by providing key sub-regional stakeholders with the necessary information to make risk sensitive development plans.