Disaster Response Regional Architecture: Assessing Future Possibilities

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies co-hosted a workshop titled “Disaster Response Regional Architectures: Assessing Future Possibilities” from 18th to 20th July 2017 to facilitate analysis among relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts to achieve a common understanding of challenges and opportunities associated with regional disaster response coordination in four distinct Asia-Pacific regions; identify current and emerging response-related issues, trends and strategic implications; and make recommendations for improved and collaborative regional disaster response architectures.  The workshop findings will be jointly published by RSIS and DKI APCSS in a report for public distribution.

A total of 43 participants from 14 Indo-Asia-Pacific states and Taiwan attended the workshop. Workshop participants had a mixture of professional backgrounds leading and/or coordinating disaster management sharing efforts to include international, regional and civil society organizations, defence ministry officials, foreign affairs and national disaster management bodies. U.S. participants included the United States Agency for International Development, Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance, Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group, Center for Excellence in Disaster Management (CFE-DM). Non-national participants included representatives from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Centre (AHA Centre), and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Disaster Management Centre, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Council of Volunteer Agencies (ICVA).