Participants at an Asia-Europe meeting were finalizing a new declaration on disaster risk reduction and management on Friday, after a site visit to areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
The Tacloban Declaration is meant to identify the gaps, challenges, best practices, innovation, systems and procedures for better DRRM in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region. The document, expected to be finalized at the conclusion of the Asia-Europe Meeting Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, is considered a step towards the post-2015 framework for DRR that will be crafted in Sendai, Japan, next year during the Third World Conference on DRR.
The Sendai DRR framework is expected to replace the decade-old Hyogo Framework for Action, which expires in 2015.
This week’s ASEM participants in Manila included Philippine President Benigno Aquino III; Margareta Wahlström, the U.N. special representative of the secretary-general for disaster risk reduction; Kristalina Georgieva, European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response and other foreign dignitaries.
On the fringes of the event, Georgieva announced an additional $40.8 million in disaster assistance from the European Commission to shore up relief and reconstruction efforts in the devastated areas in central Philippines. Participants visited Tacloban on the first day of the 3-day meeting, which was organized by the Philippine government and the European Union.
Watch out for more coverage from Tacloban in the coming days as we travel to the region to take stock of relief efforts and talk to development officials on the ground. Got a question we should ask — leave a comment below!
Disaster risk reduction, resilience and other major development issues in the Asia-Pacific region will be among the key topics June 10-11 at the Devex Partnerships & Career Forum in Manila.
About the author
Lean Alfred Santos@DevexLeanAS
Lean Alfred Santos is a former Devex development reporter focusing on the development community in Asia-Pacific, including major players such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. He previously covered Philippine and international business and economic news, sports and politics.