Insights on the ASEAN
Regional Forum’s Disaster Management Efforts, from
the ASEAN Secretariat

Disaster management has been one of the founding pillars of ASEAN regional cooperation since its inception in 1967. The earthquake and tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004 showed that our mitigation, relief, and response effort pales in comparison to the devastation that nature can inflict upon us. It exposed our weaknesses in collectively addressing such large-scale calamities. However, the significant consequence of this unprecedented disaster is the coming together of the global community in an equally unprecedented way to rebuild and strengthen our preparedness. The tsunami’s epic proportion necessitated the mobilisation of millions of people for rescue, response, and relief efforts, and motivated ASEAN Member Countries to come to terms with their individual country’s vulnerability to natural disasters.

ASEAN Member Countries, some of which suffered the worst from the tsunami disaster, took the lead in mobilising the world leaders and organising several high-level meetings. After the Special ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting in Jakarta on 6 January 2005, ASEAN speedily concluded the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response in July 2005. This Agreement is a legally binding comprehensive framework for implementing disaster reduction activities in the region. ASEAN successfully conducted the first-ever ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise (ARDEX-05) in September 2005 in Malaysia. The exercise was conducted to provide guidance and lessons for the development of the regional standby arrangements and standard operating procedures under the Agreement. The exercise was based on a scenario of a serious earthquake throughout Peninsular Malaysia, affecting mostly the State of Selangor. A joint urban search and rescue operation was performed on a cluster of high-rise buildings in the State of Selangor. Malaysia mobilised its emergency response capacities to respond to the situation, while Brunei Darussalam and Singapore deployed their urban search and rescue capacities to respond to Malaysia’s request for assistance. The exercise involved the mobilisation of personnel and light to medium equipment from these three ASEAN Member Countries. Philippines designated a Chief Referee for the exercise, heading a group of referees from the ten ASEAN Member Countries. Such exercises will become an annual event, as a proactive measure to ensure regional preparedness and effectiveness in mobilising resources within the region to countries affected by natural disasters. The above-mentioned regional standby arrangements, which ASEAN is putting together, will include both military and civilian facilities, to be mobilised in time of need.

ASEAN considers the strategic role of disaster management as the avenue for confidence building and regional cooperation. As presented above, there are available frameworks and platforms for civil-military coordination and engagement in disaster relief in ASEAN. Considering the importance of civil-military coordination in disaster relief, ASEAN is pursuing opportunities to test the mobilisation of both military and civilian assets in the next ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise (ARDEX-06), scheduled to be held in September 2006 in Cambodia. Other ARF members would be invited to observe ARDEX-06 as part of ASEAN’s effort to build linkages with them and to promote civil-military cooperation in disaster relief.
The ASEAN Regional Forum has reconvened its Inter-sessional Meeting on Disaster Relief and is in the process of considering a set of cooperative activities, which will include a number of recommendations from the ARF Workshop held in Makati City, Manila in September 2005.  The ARF ministerial meeting, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur in July 2006, is expected to adopt these measures in the form of a Joint Statement. The proposed activities include the establishment of an ARF regional early warning arrangement and the development of ARF regional standby arrangements for disaster response and humanitarian activities.

Endnotes
1 Retrieved November 2005 from: http://www.aseansec.org/.
2 Retrieved November 2005 from: https://www.aseanregionalforum.org/.