APEC’s Emergency Preparedness activities in 2012:

• Nomination of the new EPWG Co-Chairs for 2012-2013.
• 3^rd (EPWG) meeting was held in in Kazan, Russian Federation  (29-30 May 2012)
• 6th Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum was held in Vladivostok, Russian Federation, in October 2012.
• Projects/Workshops

New EPWG Co-Chairs

In accordance with the endorsed Guidelines for Chairmanship of APEC EPWG, members agreed intersessionally on the nomination of the new Co-Chairs: Ph.D. Li, Wei-Sen (Chinese Taipei) Deputy Executive Secretary, National S&T Center for Disaster Reduction and former Steering Committee Chair, and Mr. Nguyen Huu Phuc (Viet Nam), Director General, Disaster Management Center from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The 3^rd Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG). Key issues discussed included:

• EPWG endorsed the paper, "Strengthening collaboration between the EPWG, other APEC Fora, and non-members.”
• Streamline EPWG organizational structure and function.
• EPWG approved a response to EPWG Independent Assessment of 2011 to report to SCE.
• Increased sharing of best practices and experiences at governmental, sub-governmental, NGOs and community level through the EPWG website

EPWG members implemented the APEC Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Preparedness and Response in The Asia Pacific Region: 2009 – 2015.

6th APEC Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum (SDMOF)

The 6th SDMOF, held in Vladivostok, Russia on 9-10 October 2012 and chaired by EMERCOM Minister of Russia Mr. Vladimir Puchkov, gathered senior officials of fifteen economies to share best practices and experiences on natural disasters management. An important outcome was the recommendation to establish a Crisis Management Centers Network in the APEC region in collaboration with UNOCHA and to entrust the EPWG to continue further work on developing cooperation among CMCs in line with the guidance of APEC.

Projects/Workshops implemented in 2012

• A training course on Quantitative Precipitation/Estimation Forecasting (QPE/QPF) focused on the quantitative assessment of the amount of precipitation brought about by the occurrence of typhoons and heavy rainfall over a predicted area (27-30 March 2012 in Manila, the Philippines).
• APEC Seminar on Capacity Building for Disaster Recovery and Rehabilitation (11-12 June 2012 in Shanghai, China).
• Under cross-fora collaboration, the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG) sought assistance from EPWG to implement the Multiple Year Project, “Improving Natural Disaster Resilience of APEC SMEs to Facilitate Trade and Investment” (2012-2014).
• EPWG Implementation of the Independent Assessment Report recommendations.
• Developing Governments’ Capacity to Promote and Facilitate the Effective Use of Business Continuity Planning for Organizational Resilience (Australia)
• Travel Facilitation for Disaster Personnel and Equipment in Times of Disasters in the Asia-Pacific Region (Indonesia)
• Development of Crisis Management Centers in APEC economies and their integration into the global network (Russia)
• APEC Capacity Building Workshop on Search and Rescue of Persons and Vessels in Distress at Sea (Viet Nam)

APEC’s Emergency Preparedness activities in 2011 included:

• 2^nd EPWG meeting was held in Washington DC, USA in March 2011.
• EPWG Steering Committee meeting was held in San Francisco, USA in September 2011.
• 5th Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum was held in San Francisco, USA on 21-23 September 2011.
• High Level Dialogue on Disaster Resiliency was held on 11 November 2011 in Hawaii, USA.
• Projects / Workshops

The 2^ND Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG).  Issues discussed included: 

• Aligning the EPWG's website with other international fora that deal with emergency preparedness and business resilience.
• Organizing a Policy Dialogue involving expert speakers from APEC, international organizations and business to broaden perspectives on the work of the EPWG.

5th APEC Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum

This forum for senior disaster management officials (i.e. heads of disaster management agencies in the Asia-Pacific region) allowed the participants to share lessons learned and best practices to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the region’s disaster management agencies.  The 5th APEC SDMOF, like the APEC Chief Emergency Officials (CEOs) forums before it, was the largest annual gathering of disaster management leaders in the Asia-Pacific region. The theme of the 2-3 day forum was public-private partnerships for disaster management. Principles on public-private partnerships were endorsed. 

The APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Disaster Resiliency

During the meeting members reviewed the latest natural disasters that had occurred in the region during 2011, as well as case studies, lessons learnt and ways to foster greater cooperation. The forum gave high priority to the importance of public-private partnership (PPP) on disaster management. Members also discussed a set of principles on PPP to promote disaster resilient businesses and communities and stressed the importance of business recovery plans.

They agreed on six broad principles that will guide the development of EPWG projects in 2012:

1. Adopt a “Whole of Society” approach to developing and strengthening public-private partnerships that support business and community resilience to disasters. This includes involving all levels of government, non-government, and the private sector;
2. Through public-private partnership programs, encourage a greater role for women in supporting disaster resilient businesses and communities;
3. Strengthen public-private partnerships by sharing information, drawing on best practices, and learning from experiences;
4. Leverage existing programs and resources, and strengthen partnerships that develop during disasters to sustain long-term public-private collaboration and avoid duplication of effort;
5. Establish partnerships based on shared responsibilities and resources, with mutually agreed upon roles and tasks;
6. Cultivate public private partnerships that are open to flexible and innovative ways of working together to build business and community resilience to disasters.

Projects / Workshops implemented in 2011

• The International Disaster Management Course (IDMC) (Singapore on 28 March to 4 April 2011), addressed the emergency response and approach towards disaster management at both the tactical and operational levels. It provided a wide-ranging discourse on issues and challenges facing the authorities dealing in disaster management at a national/state level.
• Facing the Abnormal Flood Disaster: New vision for APEC member economies (Da Nang, Viet Nam on 28-29 July 2011). Participants had a productive discussion on issues like climate change and its impact on abnormal floods, rising sea levels, high tides and the possible impact of the increasing abnormal flood. They shared useful and effective experiences and best practices on flood management.
• Workshop on Private Sector Emergency Preparedness (Sendai, Japan on 1-3 August 2011). The workshop focused on improving private sector emergency preparedness, bringing together experts from the public and private sectors to share ideas and experience with representatives from APEC economies. Themes included strengthening business and supply chain resilience as well as engaging the private sector in business continuity planning (BCP) as part of a broader effort to facilitate trade and investment in the Asia- Pacific region.
• School Earthquake Safety in APEC Economies: Reducing Risk and Improving Preparedness (Chinese Taipei on 17-19 October 2011). This project addressed priorities set by APEC Leaders and APEC Emergency Management CEOs and improved the understanding of earthquake risk to schools in the APEC economies, capacity building for managing earthquake risk and developed a comprehensive school earthquake safety policy framework. Participants also worked towards drafting an APEC-specific school safety framework.
• Study Course on Wildfires Management in APEC Region contributed to the enforcement of national emergency management systems and strengthening of APEC regional capacities in wildfires management (Russia on 7-11 November 2011).
• 2011 APEC Food Security Forum – APEC Food Emergency Response Mechanism (Chinese Taipei on 9-11 August). Self-funded project.

APEC’s Emergency Preparedness activities in 2010 included:

• An APEC Roundtable Meeting on “Asia Regionalism: Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters” was held on 5-6 May 2010 in Singapore.
• A “Public-Private Partnerships and Disaster Resilience Workshop” was held on 15-18 June 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Cooperation with the APEC Climate Centre to develop an extreme climate prediction system is ongoing. An APEC Climate Symposium was held on 20-24 June 2010 in Busan, Korea.
• A “Seminar on Cooperation to Prevent Forest Fires” was held October 2010 in Khabarovsk, Russia.