Overview

The UNDRR Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) supports disaster risk reduction efforts across the Asia-Pacific region. ROAP works with governments, United Nations Country Teams, regional and international organizations, and other stakeholder groups, to protect people from disasters, build resilience and support sustainable development.

ROAP covers a total of 39 countries and 13 territories. It is based in Bangkok, Thailand, with a sub-regional office in Suva, Fiji, a liaison office in Kobe, Japan, and an office for North-East Asia in Incheon, Republic of Korea. 
 

COVID-19 Activities 
 

UNDRR Asia-Pacific has initiated a series of activities to enhance prevention, response and recovery efforts on COVID-19. These include:

 

Webinars


Webinar series that brings together subject matter experts and practitioners on relevant topics. Webinars to date have been:

  • Webinar 1: Leave no one Behind in COVID-19 Prevention, Response and Recovery,
  • Webinar 2: Reducing COVID-19 Vulnerability Amongst Displaced Populations and Migrants, 
  • Webinar 3: Combating the dual challenges of climate-related disasters and COVID-19. 
  • Webinar 4: Business resilience in the face of COVID-19
  • Webinar 5: Risk communication to prevent the spread of COVID-19: Countering the ‘Infodemic’
  • Webinar 6: Opportunities for Resilient Recovery
  • Webinar 7: The Human Rights Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Webinar 8: Disaster-Responsive Social Protection: Lessons from COVID-19
  • Webinar 9: Thailand-Korea: Preparing To Recover And Moving Towards a 'New Normal'
  • Webinar 10: Disaster Risk Reduction and Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic
  COVID-19 Briefs


We are also documenting the webinars in the form of COVID-19 Briefs that also provide insights into the response challenges and make policy recommendations:

  1. Leave no One Behind in COVID-19 Prevention, Response and Recovery.
  2. Reducing the Vulnerability of Migrants and Displaced Populations.
  3. Combating the dual challenges of climate-related disasters and COVID-19
  4. Business Resilience in the Face of COVID-19
  5. Risk communication and countering the ‘Infodemic’
  6. Opportunities for Resilient Recovery
  7. The Human Rights Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic
  8. Disaster-Responsive Social Protection
  9. Action Brief: Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction and Response in the Context of COVID-19: The Asia-Pacific Region

 

Private Sector Toolkit

 

Many businesses remain without any type of business risk management plan or have plans that have proven inadequate in managing the current pandemic.

UNDRR’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has developed a package of tools and products to support small business owners during this pandemic.

  • COVID-19 Small Business Continuity and Recovery Planning Toolkit, which is available in 11 languages.
  • A narrated online training course to orient business owners to the use of the Small Business Continuity and Recovery Planning Toolkit.
  • An online Quick Risk Estimation (QRE) Tool to help small businesses, including those in the informal sector, better understand their exposure and vulnerability to the COVID-19 pandemic and other risks.

 

  Flagship Publication  

 

Review of COVID-19 Disaster Risk Governance in Asia-Pacific: Towards Multi-Hazard and Multi-Sectoral Disaster Risk Reduction  

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its cascading impacts on social and economic development, has highlighted the need for countries to improve their disaster risk governance mechanisms to become multi-hazard in their scope and multi-sectoral in their reach. Based on a review of policy documents in 28 countries, this publication provides recommendations on how disaster risk governance can be strengthened in Asia-Pacific. 

 

Upcoming Events
No results found!There are no upcoming events for Asia&Pacific. See UNDRR full calendar of events
Latest Publications
Cities becoming more resilient in Asia and the Pacific

These statistics show live data about municipalities in this region that have joined the Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative. The villages, towns, and cities have made a commitment to move along the resilience roadmap to better protect their citizens.

 

 

Contact us

UNDRR Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
UN Secretariat Building
76 Rajadamnern Nok Ave
Bangkok, 10200 Thailand

Phone: +66 02288 2745
Email: UNDRR-AP@un.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNDRR Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific
5th Floor Kadavu House,
Victoria Parade
Suva, Fiji 

Phone: +679 310 0370  
Email: mcelroy@un.org
 

Countries

Country Sendai Focal Point National Platform Country profile on PreventionWeb
Afghanistan Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority Country profile
Australia Department of Home Affairs Country profile
Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster and Relief Country profile
Bhutan Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs - Bhutan Country profile
Brunei Darussalam National Disaster Management Centre Country profile
Cambodia National Committee for Disaster Management (Cambodia) Country profile
China Ministry of Emergency Management Country profile
Fiji National Disaster Management Office, Fiji National Disaster Management Office Country profile
India Ministry of Home Affairs (India) Country profile
Indonesia National Agency for Disaster Management, National Agency for Disaster Management Country profile
Iran, Islamic Rep of Ministry of Interior Country profile
Japan Cabinet Office, Government of Japan Country profile
Kiribati Kiribati - government Country profile
Korea, Dem People's Rep of State Committee for Emergency and Disaster Management, Embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Bangkok Country profile
Korea, Rep of Ministry of the Interior and Safety Country profile
Lao People's Democratic Republic Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Country profile
Malaysia National Disaster Management Agency Country profile
Maldives National Disaster Management Centre (Maldives) Country profile
Marshall Islands National Disaster Management Office Country profile
Micronesia, Fed States of Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management Country profile
Mongolia National Emergency Management Agency (Mongolia) Country profile
Myanmar Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Country profile
Nauru Disaster Risk Management Office under the Ministry of Commerce Industry & Environment. Government of Nauru Country profile
Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) Country profile
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Country profile
Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority (Pakistan) Country profile
Palau National Emergency Management Office Country profile
Papua New Guinea National Disaster Centre Country profile
Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Council Country profile
Samoa Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Country profile
Singapore Country profile
Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office (Solomon Islands) Country profile
Sri Lanka Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management Country profile
Thailand Ministry of Interior (Thailand) Country profile
Timor-Leste National Disaster Risk Management Directorate, Ministry of Social Solidarity Timor Leste Country profile
Tonga Ministry of Infrastructure Country profile
Tuvalu National Disaster Management Office, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Tuvalu Country profile
Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office (Vanuatu) Country profile
Viet Nam Vietnam Disaster Management Authority Country profile

News and events

UNDP flood recovery programme Pakistan
The theatre of action and opportunity for solutions in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals has ‘gravitated towards urban centres’. Many of these solutions will be through policymakers and their partners adopting more ‘systems-based’ approaches
Ben Ryan and Shelby Garner lead agreement of an action agenda for resilient health systems drawing on the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic
Frontline health and disaster management professionals and academics from 8 countries have made a series of recommendations to strengthen public health systems in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and other potential health emergencies
Thaya River Basin
Cities that understand their climate risk are in a better position to manage it. MCR2030 service provider DHI relates how it is supporting the Czech city of Brno and its surrounding area to manage drought risk
Women leaders changing DRR
On International Women’s Day 2023, we celebrate the women who are transforming disaster risk reduction planning and implementation to make it more gender responsive and inclusive and therefore more effective.
Among the MCR2030 success stories of 2022 are numerous cities like Kulhuffushi City in the Maldives and Ormoc and Baguio City in the Philippines that are currently developing local disaster risk reduction (DRR) plans.
Remote and in-person speakers of the Fourth World Tsunami Museum Conference 2022
The Fourth World Tsunami Museum Conference (WTMC4) was held in Sendai City, Japan on the 15th of December 2022 with a focus on the role of youth and tsunami museums on the resilience of societies.
Engaging persons with disabilities on local disaster resilience planning
A new MCR2030 tool enables local governments to design, formulate, and implement disaster resilience strategies that are more inclusive of the perspectives and capacities of persons with disabilities
Makati Mayor Abby Binay declares Climate Emergency
On August 5, 2022, Makati declared a climate emergency, calling for much-needed environmental reform. The Philippines city is implementing initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, promote renewable energy and conservation, and create green jobs
Green Square Wroclaw Poland
‘We strive to make Wroclaw a resilient and responsible city, ready for the challenges of the future.’ This is the climate-resilient vision that Mayor Jacek Sutryk has for the Polish city
Barcelona greening of neighbourhood squares
Barcelona is creating a more attractive and climate-friendly environment for its inhabitants. Change is happening before the eyes of its 1.6 million citizens as well as the wider world keen to learn from this consistently innovative city
No results found!

Publications

Cover page Solomon Islands
The disaster risk reduction status report provides a snapshot of the state of disaster risk reduction in the Republic of the Marshall Islands under four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Cover
This report documents the assessment of the status of national disaster loss databases in 13 countries and presents lessons to guide the next generation of disaster loss accounting systems (DLAS).
Bangladesh INFORM Subnational Risk Index 2022
To provide a solid baseline for risk monitoring in Bangladesh, a localized, sub-national Index For Risk Management (INFORM) was developed by the United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office (UNRCO).
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper examines the need to create new governing systems at the local level that allow actors and institutions to simultaneously manage the interplays of single and multi-hazards and other residual risks.
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper explores the role and the contribution of the public and private sectors in the (re)production and accumulation of disaster risks from a disaster capitalism optic.
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper takes a look at how Australia is actively learning to navigate governance and capability challenges to create environments in which all sectors are enabled to reduce complex systemic risks.
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper examines access to emergency and related information during the COVID-19 pandemic as a crucial human security issue. 
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper examines the interplay between official adaptive social protection (ASP) and grassroots efforts based on a case study of the rural reconstruction and recovery that took place after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China.
Cover and title of publication
This contributing paper aims to review the impact of drug addiction, domestic violence and suicide in Australia through the lens of disaster risk reduction.
Cover and title of publication
This study discusses four types of situations where successful DRM interventions are made invisible and propose an analysis to calculate the ‘probabilistic lives saved’ from disaster risk management interventions, that would otherwise remain unnoticed.

Activities

The Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific manages or engages with a number of platforms and programs to support disaster risk reduction efforts and accelerate implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in the region.

Asia - 2

Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (APP-DRR) Forum

The Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (APP-DRR) Forum [formerly known as the ISDR Asia Partnership (IAP)] was set up in 2003 as an informal multi-stakeholder forum to promote disaster risk reduction in the Asia & Pacific region. Organised and convened by the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the forum has grown to become one of the most important regional platforms for DRR. The forum includes governments, inter-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, the UN, international organizations, and bilateral and multilateral donors. The APP-DRR advances disaster risk reduction through supporting the implementation of the Sendai Framework and the Asia Regional Plan.

 

APMCDRR logo

Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR)

The Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR) is the main regional platform for promoting coordination and cooperation on DRR and the implementation of the Sendai Framework in Asia and the Pacific.

Held every two years, it brings together UN Member States, intergovernmental organisations, international and national organisations and stakeholder groups, to accelerate progress on disaster risk reduction. The conference is instrumental to strengthening DRR in the region by sharing good practice and knowledge and forging partnerships.

The eighth session of this conference, and the second after the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, was hosted by the Government of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar, 3-6 July 2018. Key outcome documents from the 2018 conference were the Ulaanbaatar Declaration and the regional Action Plan 2018-2020.

The next APMCDRR will be hosted by the Government of Australia and will be held in Brisbane, Queensland, from 19-22 September 2022 at the Brisbane Conference and Exhibition Centre.

Asia - 31

Pacific Resilience Meeting

The Pacific Resilience Partnership (PRP) is mandated by the leaders of Pacific countries to support national implementation of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP). This multi-sector, multi-stakeholder mechanism comprises representatives from the region’s countries and territories, civil society and private sector, and regional organisations and development partners. UNDRR, along with UNDP, represents the entire UN system on the PRP. An important pillar of the PRP is the biennial Pacific Resilience Meeting (PRM), which recommends priority actions for integrated disaster and climate risk reduction at all levels to advance the FRDP. The inaugural PRM in May 2019 in Suva, Fiji, was themed ‘Youth Futures in a Resilient Pacific’. For more information about the meeting.

workshop climate week

Capacity building and training

UNDRR conducts capacity building and training workshops at the regional and country level to support Member States, partner organizations and stakeholders. Over the last two years, many of these workshops have been focused on helping countries achieve major milestones along the path of implementing the Sendai Framework, in particular:

- Collection and reporting of data on progress in reducing disaster risk via the Sendai Framework Monitor.

- The creation and maintenance of disaster loss database to track the impact of disasters and identify trends.

- The development and implementation of national or local disaster risk reduction strategies, and ensuring their coherence with national development and climate action plans. 

UNDRR also works to strengthen the capacity of United Nations country teams to inform the integration of DRR into country analysis and programs. In addition, UNDRR has provided inter-governmental organizations in Asia-Pacific, such as ASEAN and SAARC, to increase their awareness of disaster risk reduction and the benefits of integrating it in their sectoral plans. Other topics on which UNDRR has organized consultative workshops to mainstream disaster risk reduction into other sectors, include the integration of DRR tools into the humanitarian action cycle and strengthening the resilience of micro, small and medium enterprises. 

mcr city workshop

Making Cities Resilient Campaign

Operational since 2010, the Making Cities Resilient (MCR) Campaign is a partnering initiative of local government alliances for disaster risk reduction with peer learning opportunities. The aim of the campaign is to encourage mayors, local governments and national authorities to take action towards making cities resilient as part of sustainable urbanization.

The campaign has developed a set of guidance documents, toolkits, and assessment tools. A key tool is the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities. The Scorecard provides a set of assessments that will allow local governments to assess their disaster resilience, structuring around UNDRR’s Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient. It also helps to monitor and review progress and challenges in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

MCR website

 

Partnerships

Stakeholder

Organizing Group

Children, Youth and Child-centred Organizations

UN Major Group on Children and Youth (MGCY)

Local Authorities

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)

NGOs/Civil Society

Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN)

Persons with Disabilities

Disability-inclusive DRR Network (DiDRRN)

Private Sector

ARISE

Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Science, Technology and Academia

Asia-Pacific Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (AP-STAG)

Women and Gender

Duryog Nivaran

Media

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU)

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