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NTS Bulletin June 2016: Between Summits and Vision: Effective Disaster Management by 2025

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The World Humanitarian Summit was held in Istanbul on 23 and 24 May 2016 bringing together 9000 participants from 173 governments, the private sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations.

The Summit’s three main goals were (1) to recommit to humanity and humanitarian principles; (2) to enable countries and communities to better prepare for and respond to crises, and be more resilient to shocks; and (3) to share people-centred humanitarian best practices to save lives and alleviate suffering.

In the Summit aftermath, it is clear that ASEAN has a significant role in realising these commitments by 2025.

“Grand Bargain” for more efficient aid financing

The most concrete outcome of the summit was a “Grand Bargain” signed by the top 30 donors and aid agencies to commit 25 per cent of humanitarian funding to local and national agencies by 2020.

The humanitarian system has been criticized for keeping resources and power vested with large UN agencies and NGOs, rather than local players who currently receive 2% of global funding.
Twenty-seven international NGOs further committed to the “Charter4Change” to pass 20 per cent of their funding to national NGOs by 2018. This is an important development for humanitarian financing with significant implications for Southeast Asia particularly benefitting national NGOs and local communities to further develop their disaster response and mitigation strategies. It also moves away from a top-down approach to a locally-driven humanitarian and development system.

ASEAN-United Nations humanitarian partnership

On the sidelines of the Summit, the ASEAN-UN Joint Strategic Plan of Action on Disaster Management was launched. The forum discussed lessons learnt and ways forward for the longstanding ASEAN and UN humanitarian partnership in disaster management. This included ways to strengthen local, national and regional preparedness and response capacities, leadership and resilience in disaster management, and relief coordination.

Moving forward, there is a need for disaster management to include greater focus on mitigation in addition to emergency preparedness and response in one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Southeast Asia suffered more than 50 per cent of global disaster mortalities; 354,000 out of the 700,000 deaths due to disasters worldwide between 2004 and 2014. Total economic loss was US$91 billion, and about 193 million people were affected by the disasters. ASEAN needs to drive forward disaster risk reduction policies to achieve the Sendai Framework target by 2030.

WHS 2016: Implications for ASEAN

At the closing of the Summit, ASEAN Ministers responsible for disaster management committed to the ‘Agenda for Humanity’ aimed to prevent and reduce humanitarian crises and suffering. The earlier ASEAN-UN joint statement adopted at the Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management conveys these commitments based on the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER), the ASEAN Vision 2025 on Forging Ahead Together and the newly-adopted ASEAN Vision 2025 on Disaster Management. These commitments signify that ASEAN is strengthening its position to respond to complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters.

If realized, humanitarian financing reforms will have a great impact on the capabilities of local and national aid agencies for disaster management in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the new ASEAN-UN partnership will enhance ASEAN’s aspiration to be a world leader in disaster management by 2025.