A plan adopted at the just concluded Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction aims to consolidate contingency and disaster relief planning to mitigate human and socio-economic losses.
 
The plan, the Beijing Action for Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia (BADRRA), says that each disaster affects large number of people and constantly challenges existing emergency response capacities. It is critical for the effectiveness of disaster early warning as efforts should ensure that people at risk are able to receive, understand and act to protect themselves.
 
BADRRA highlights that most Asian countries have neither developed contingency plans nor incentives to encourage their development and wider application.
 
To reduce the loss of human lives, national governments are encouraged to prepare, review and modify contingency plans regularly for efficient and effective disaster response at community and national levels, the plan said.
 
BADRRA also suggests that cooperative contingency planning is particularly important when responding to large-scale or trans-boundary disasters. And assessing and communicating disaster risks to decision-makers and the people at risk are the basis for disaster preparedness and risk reduction frameworks.

BADRRA also made some proposals in enhancing the resilience of critical facilities and infrastructure for disaster preparedness and reduction.

Asia is possibly the most disaster-prone region of the world and home to more than a third of the world's population. Frequent floods, typhoons and earthquakes devastate lives, livelihoods and economies.

Delegates from 42 countries participated in the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction that was held in Beijing from September 27 to 29. The meeting was organized to facilitate the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, developed at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR).

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2005)