The Objectives of the Seminar

The Seminar Objectives 1. The ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) launched the ASEAN Regional Program on Disaster Management (ARPDM) in May The program contains 29 activities, which can be grouped into five major areas. In order to get concrete result, 5 prioritized programs were selected to put into operation within The sub-component number 5.1 of the ARPDM is the ASEAN Day for Disaster Management (ADDM). Due to the fact that there is a lack of awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation among the people living in hazard-prone areas, ADDM aims to raise the people’s awareness through annual campaigns. 3. Thailand has been assigned to be the lead shepherd country in the implementation of ADDM. Indeed, since 2005, the year that we started ADDM, this program has yet to produce a great impact. There are a lot of things to be undertaken. Besides, ADDM is not widely known to the general public. We will talk about the status of this program in greater details in ADCM-Focused session tomorrow. 4. With that limitation, we, as the lead country of this program, think that we should do something to make ADDM better known to the people of ASEAN, and thus make people aware of disaster prevention and begin to react on a shelf-help basis before getting outside assistance.

The Seminar Objectives (cont’) 5. The idea to improve the effectiveness and visibility of ADDM has then lead to the organization of this seminar. We have had close consultation with the ASEAN Secretariat. We set three main objectives as follows: (1) to discuss about the current disaster risk situation the region is now facing in order to prepare ourselves (2) to make arrangement for the upcoming 2007 ADDM which will become the third years since 2005 and (3) to brainstorm on the way to organize ADDM in 2008 and beyond. 6. To elaborate on the first objective about the discussion of the situation of disaster risk at the present time, we think that our region is now facing a higher number of disaster events. There is no need here to mention about it as we all know already. In most cases, we have been in-active rather than pro-active in disaster management. The tsunami event made this point very clear that most people in the region did not prepare for such a large-scale disaster damage. 7. Provided that in this region there are many kinds of disasters. But this seminar has only two days to talk about it. Therefore, we cannot address all disasters. Perhaps, it is a good idea to talk about something that never happened but could take place in the future. People in the world today talk much about the new threat from the Global Warming Phenomenon. This issue should not be again treated like a rumour. In this seminar, we will have a good opportunity to learn about the global warming from Professor Dr.Kasem Chunkaew, the Director of Environment College, Kasetsart University. Professor Kasem has long been working in this issue and he will give us a clearer picture of what exactly the global warming is and what we, the disaster management managers, can do to prepare for the bad consequences that might come along. 7. Provided that in this region there are many kinds of disasters. But this seminar has only two days to talk about it. Therefore, we cannot address all disasters. Perhaps, it is a good idea to talk about something that never happened but could take place in the future. People in the world today talk much about the new threat from the Global Warming Phenomenon. This issue should not be again treated like a rumour. In this seminar, we will have a good opportunity to learn about the global warming from Professor Dr.Kasem Chunkaew, the Director of Environment College, Kasetsart University. Professor Kasem has long been working in this issue and he will give us a clearer picture of what exactly the global warming is and what we, the disaster management managers, can do to prepare for the bad consequences that might come along.

The Seminar Objectives (cont’) 8. We will address the global warming in two different ways. First, we will listen to a scientist who will explain to us with the scientific point of views. We will have about 45 minutes, so I invite all of us to follow the lecture and take the knowledge as much as possible. Second, we will be informed of the regional efforts by the representative from the United Nations regarding the preparedness of global warming. 9. We expect that we will learn from the lectures, presentation and discussions during the seminar. From this learning process, we should see how we can plan for the future. 10. As the ASEAN has come to the age of 40 this year, we may like to know about the regional cooperation on disaster management over the past 40 years. We will have a representative from the ASEAN Secretariat, Ms.Adelina Kamal, to talk about that. 11. The afternoon session of the first day is the highlight of this seminar. In this panel discussion, we will be listening to 3 speakers from 3 international organizations, all of which have been in close collaborations with ACDM. We will have 3 honored speakers; Dr.Bhichit Rattakuk from ADPC, Dr.Jerry Velasquez from UN-ISDR and Mr.Nguyen Hung Ha from IFRC. Myself, Suporn Ratananakin from DDPM will be the moderator. The format of the panel discussion will not focus on giving series of presentation but will focus on the response from the panelists to the questions asked by the moderator. The theme of the talking will be on “Challenges Ahead and the Way Forward for ASEAN in achieving a disaster resilient community by 2015”

The Seminar Objectives (cont’) 12. The morning session on the second day of the seminar will be ACDM-Focused Session. Thailand will start the session by informing the meeting with the status of ADDM program from 2 years of operation ( ). The presentation will cover the progress made, the gaps and the challenges. We would like to convince the meeting about the necessity to improve this program. 13. The next agenda is the presentation by all member counties on the disaster reduction efforts during the past year (October 2006-September 2007) with the focus on the theme “School Education and Disaster Risk Reduction”. Member countries could also provide information on national activities in this 2007 ADDM to the meeting. The objectives of this session are 1) to publicize disaster reduction activities and 2) to consolidate information as well as materials for 2007 ADDM exhibition to be held at UNCC during 8-10 October Then, ISDR will give us some thought about the International Day for Disaster Reduction As you are aware, this year there will be a range of activities in the three days workshop. As I understand, we will have a discussion on what role ACDM can play on this occasion.

The Seminar Objectives (cont’) 15. Before closing, Thailand will present to the meeting the discussion paper on ADDM 2008 and beyond in order to seek comments and advice. This will be the guideline for next year activity. 16. After closing, which will be conducted at around 11:45 a.m. tomorrow, we invite all the participants of the seminar to the river cruise lunch along the Chaopraya River. 17. To sum up, this seminar is the first regional gathering of the member countries to cerebrate ADDM. Thailand as the responsible country for this program is trying to find the best the most acceptable means to organize ADDM. We hope that this seminar will help us in the improvement of ADDM in the future. Thank you. Thank you.