South East Asia emergency response team takes on region’s deluge of disasters
After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, international aid poured into Southeast Asia, but in both disasters the 10-nation regional body ASEAN was conspicuously absent, says disaster expert Arnel Capili.
“Those were very big events that really affected the national governments of member states. The question was, where is ASEAN?” Capili said of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “The leaders talked about it, and they said, ‘We must have a way to help each other. We’re brothers. We’re neighbors.'”
The result was the creation of a committee of national disaster staff which, in 2011, set up the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance, or the AHA Centre.
The AHA Centre represents a growing awareness that the region – which has seen rapid economic growth over the past decade and has a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion – must help itself. So far, the AHA Centre has focused on “quick wins” to prove its worth to member states, building up disaster preparedness, monitoring, analysis and response, Capili said.
