Strengthening Coordination and Disaster Preparedness in Asia and the Pacific - OCHA 2009

The Asia-Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. These events have become more frequent and severe worsened by the effects of climate change and growing population density. Additionally the region's vulnerability to outbreaks of infectious diseases including the potential of a pandemic remains a pressing concern. The humanitarian community also continues to grapple with existing and evolving complex emergency and protection issues. CIDA's contribution is supporting the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to strengthen emergency response coordination and to help establish a common approach to needs assessments and impact evaluations. Activities also focus on improving disaster preparedness by working with regional organizations and individual countries to strengthen contingency planning and by putting in place monitoring tools.