The Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR) 2007, Japan

The Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR) 2007, co-organized by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Government of Japan, the United Nations Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), was held in Astana, Kazakhstan from June 25 to 27, 2007.

ACDR 2007 was co-chaired by the Honorable Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, H.E. Mr. Victor Khrapunov, and the Honorable Senior Deputy-Minister for Disaster Management, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, H.E. Mr. Katsuei Hirasawa. The conference was attended by a total of 136 participants, including dignitaries and government officials from 22 countries, representatives and experts from 32 organizations from the UN and NGOs, civil societies and meteorology, hydrology, environment, and development institutions.

The conference presented and reviewed the significant accomplishments, noteworthy achievements, and good practices in disaster risk reduction at local, regional, national, and international levels, and concluded to address further concerns and challenges regarding (a) effective governance for disaster risk reduction, (b) education and training for effective disaster risk reduction and building a collective culture of safety, (c) raising awareness and understanding about natural hazards and disaster risk reduction through public outreach and people-centered early warning systems, (d) creating capabilities to mitigate earthquake risks and ensure building safety, (e) science and advanced technology to support disaster risk reduction, (f) public-private sector partnerships and resource mobilization, (g) holistic and integrated approaches and innovative strategies for disaster risk reduction, for accelerating the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) priorities for action.

Representatives of UNOOSA and UNOSAT attended the conference, as panelists of the session on Broader Application of Scientific Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and ADRC introduced the Sentinel Asia Project to the conference, which was initiated in APRSAF-12, developed by the Joint Project Team (JPT) and commenced operation from October 2006. The participants showed great interest in this Web-GIS based disaster information sharing system for emergency disaster management, and had high expectations for its use in the future.

As a regional forum that promotes dialogue, information sharing and cooperation among the member countries of ADRC, the conference has been convened every year since 2002 and ACDR 2008 is planned to be held in Indonesia next year.