Regional Centre in Bangkok

Tsunami Regional Programme for Capacity Building

Introduction

Launched in November 2005, the Tsunami Regional Programme on Capacity Building (RPCB) was initiated by UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in response to the needs of tsunami-affected countries for further regional recovery and risk reduction efforts. The programme’s main objectives are to help increase the capacity of countries affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami to undertake post-disaster recovery, and to help mitigate the risk that would ensue from any future natural disaster events.

Specifically, the RPCB programme is working towards these goals by; supporting tsunami-affected countries to develop appropriate information management tools to assess damage at the local level; support the development of Early Warning Systems at the national levels; and by offering opportunities for training and learning to national and regional natural disaster experts.

The programme’s core principles focus on providing support to Country Office programmes for capacity building and disaster risk reduction in tsunami-affected countries. Programme principles also support the development of a pro-active and forward looking approach to disaster reduction in the region, and seek to promote opportunities for effective linkages between local and national stakeholders, as well as global initiatives in risk reduction.

Immediate Activities

BCPR's Disaster Risk Reduction Workshop (Bangkok, Thailand, June 26-28)

Participants outlined key actions to initiate a process to integrate DRR into emergency response, disaster recovery, and development programming byusing principles, tools and resources within the context of the UN mandate for Disaster Risk Reduction. For more information, please consult the workshop website.

• Workshop website

Surge capacity for early recovery

Major progress was achieved initiating a programme to train post-disaster recovery specialists to support Country Offices for surge capacity for early recovery following a March regional planning meeting. Decisions on basic training content, objectives and approach, potential target participants and immediate next steps for a first training on surge capacity in Asia were all identified during the workshop. Country Office representatives also focused on some of the many challenges that they have faced following recent natural disasters.

 A clear consensus emerged among Country Office practitioners on what was and was not needed during a post-crisis early recovery period to achieve surge capacity. A striking degree of convergence existed in terms of the problems and institutional challenges experienced by Country Offices. The non-training corporate follow-up required to undertake many of the Country Office requirements was also discussed. For more information, please consult the meeting report.

Databases providing a history of natural disasters in tsunami affected countries

A workshop to improve the compilation of reliable data on disaster occurrence and impact took place in Bangkok 2-4 April and was supported by the RP Team under the Global Risk Identification Program (GRIP). UNDP/BCPR Geneva and CRED Belgium participated, as did twenty other disaster database management experts from the tsunami-affected countries (India, Indonesia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand). Other countries (Nepal, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam) attended the workshop.

The workshop recognized that disaster databases must be linked to broader agendas of disaster management and disaster reduction since development and poverty reduction initiatives will benefit from an evidence base of disaster occurrence and impact. Several issues such as defining minimum capacities in the countries, regional cooperation among lesser and more advanced countries, network of disaster data experts, accuracy and reliability of disaster data were discussed.