Plans are underway for both ASEAN and UN to enhance their partnership mechanisms on disaster management and emergency response. This comes in the wake of the recent multiple disasters that struck five ASEAN Member States almost simultaneously.
In informal talks between the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, and the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Dr Noeleen Heyzer, in Bangkok today, both sides expressed the urgent need to devise systems that are comfortable and inter-operable for both ASEAN and UN.
During the meeting, Dr Surin said that while ASEAN has been responding to the disasters according to its own mandate and ability, there is much more that can be and must be done, especially when the lives of so many people in the region have been devastated. According to Dr Surin, with the expected entry into force of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) by end of this year, ASEAN needs to have a stronger role in responding to natural disasters within the region.
Meanwhile, Dr Heyzer was of the view that the partnership should capitalise from the strengths of the two organisations. Within the UN system in Bangkok, for instance, ASEAN can capitalise on the Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM).
Both sides agreed that a working group will be instituted soon to come up with an operational framework to guide the enhanced partnership mechanism.
ASEAN and UN have a history of working closely together both at a policy level as well as on the ground. A recent collaboration is represented by the response to Cyclone Nargis, where a working mechanism called the Tripartite Core Group comprising ASEAN, the Government of Myanmar and the UN, was instituted.
The meeting, which came at the request of Dr Surin, was hosted by Dr Heyzer at the UN Secretariat Building in Bangkok. It was also attended by representatives from other UN regional offices based in Bangkok, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Coordinating Office of the ASEAN Humanitarian Task for Cyclone Nargis.
In informal talks between the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, and the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), Dr Noeleen Heyzer, in Bangkok today, both sides expressed the urgent need to devise systems that are comfortable and inter-operable for both ASEAN and UN.
During the meeting, Dr Surin said that while ASEAN has been responding to the disasters according to its own mandate and ability, there is much more that can be and must be done, especially when the lives of so many people in the region have been devastated. According to Dr Surin, with the expected entry into force of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) by end of this year, ASEAN needs to have a stronger role in responding to natural disasters within the region.
Meanwhile, Dr Heyzer was of the view that the partnership should capitalise from the strengths of the two organisations. Within the UN system in Bangkok, for instance, ASEAN can capitalise on the Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM).
Both sides agreed that a working group will be instituted soon to come up with an operational framework to guide the enhanced partnership mechanism.
ASEAN and UN have a history of working closely together both at a policy level as well as on the ground. A recent collaboration is represented by the response to Cyclone Nargis, where a working mechanism called the Tripartite Core Group comprising ASEAN, the Government of Myanmar and the UN, was instituted.
The meeting, which came at the request of Dr Surin, was hosted by Dr Heyzer at the UN Secretariat Building in Bangkok. It was also attended by representatives from other UN regional offices based in Bangkok, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Coordinating Office of the ASEAN Humanitarian Task for Cyclone Nargis.
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