Disaster Preparedness – More than a challenge in Asia-Pacific
ABU NEWS has solicited the comments of two participants/speakers at the Krabi Summit. Andrew Mcelroy of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and Radu Obreja of Digital Radio Mondiale Consortium (DRM) commend the ABU initiative to hold the second edition of this Summit. They also express their gratitude towards media organisations for their crucial role in building a culture of climate and disaster resilience in the Asia-Pacific region.
Radu Obreja (left) and Andrew Mcelroy. A
ndrew Mcelroy believes that the Summit was a very important event for two
reasons: first the issue is one of the defining development challenges of our generation; and second the broadcast media has such potential to be a positive influence to save lives and protect livelihoods by preventing and reducing disaster and climate risk.
It was also poignant to learn that the conference venue of the summit acted as a temporary hospital in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Indeed, Krabi provides an example of how community resilience and knowledge underpins effective disaster recovery. The city has bounced back after the tsunami killed more than 1,400 people locally and devastated livelihoods, especially fisheries and tourism.
He added that UNISDR strongly supports the initiative because the challenge of reducing disaster and climate risk is getting bigger especially in the region. Andrew recalls that, as the head of UNISDR, Dr Robert Glasser, told the Media Summit in his video address to delegates, the media is a key partner to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and it can really contribute to “the growing culture of disaster risk reduction."
What was really important about this meeting is that executives and journalists from television and radio
pledged to strengthen disaster and climate risk literacy, particularly among the region’s most vulnerable and exposed communities. They issued the Krabi Media Action Plan in which broadcasters “recognise our responsibility to use our reach into the most remote communities and across continents to communicate, educate and inspire collective action” on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
According to Andrew, the ABU is so well respected in the region in the media world. This enables it to have significant convening power. When the ABU takes an issue on board, it opens up the opportunity for its members to really make a difference for the better. The ABU has been a strong partner of UNISDR over the years. As a result, the engagement of the media in terms of guidance to policymakers at the global and regional level has been strengthened.
Radu Obreja, for his part, points out that the ABU Media Summit on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction held in Thailand this year is a logical continuation of the summit organised last year in Sendai, Japan. Such regular international events are necessary at a time when the changing climate has a visible impact on the lives of people around the world. “I found the Krabi event very well organised with subjects of major interest to all the stakeholders
involved in the activities related to CC and DRR”.
DRM supports such initiatives because according to Radu, Radio is the easiest, cheapest and most effective free-to-air tool to reach people over very wide areas or people living in the most remote corners of a country, when the internet and TV fail in case of disasters. Therefore, the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard is an important tool for governments when implementing their strategies for saving the lives of millions of people.
It is paramount that the various DRR initiatives and strategies developed by individual countries are presented, discussed and possibly agreed during events of large organisations like the ABU. Such an overall co-ordination has been successfully achieved by the ABU Krabi conference.
Radu Obreja concluded that the ABU has an important role in bringing together all the stakeholders working on matters related to Climate Change, Disaster Preparedness, and Disaster Risk Reduction. The ABU's events allow the exchange of ideas and the development and possibly the implementation of common strategies towards tackling the effects of Climate Change such as natural disasters. The Digital Radio Mondiale Standard with its inbuilt Emergency Warning Functionality is able to assist ABU member countries in achieving their overall DRR goals.
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