More than 1,200 participants including 49 Government Ministers and high level delegates from Asia will meet on Tuesday, 23th of October in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR). The Conference is the first gathering of Asian Government Ministers to consider a successor to the world's first comprehensive agreement on disaster risk reduction, the "Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015): Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters".
The Conference will examine how to scale up action at local level and discuss the nature of a new post-2015 agreement based on the region's experience to date. The main themes of conference are: integrating local level disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into national development plans; assessing local risk and financing; and strengthening local risk governance and partnership. Among the main outcomes of the Conference will be a final declaration which will include a road map for the next two years to enhance the disaster risk reduction capacities at local and regional level, as well as technical and political commitments from various stakeholders such as parliamentarians, children, mayors, the private sector, civil society and media organizations. Last year, Asian countries dominated the list of most disaster affected countries worldwide. The Philippines with 33 major reported disasters tops the list followed by China with 22. Other Asian countries featuring in the top ten included India, Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam.
On the sidelines of the Conference the Asian Film Festival on Disaster Risk Reduction will take place. Eleven short films on disaster risk reduction have been selected for competition. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNBP), which are the main organisers of the film competition, received more than 47 entries from Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Korea, China and Indonesia. The films, mainly produced by Asian NGOS and disaster management organisations were selected by a Film Festival Committee set up by BNBP according to three main categories: "The best Disaster Risk Reduction story", "The best Disaster Risk Reduction human interest story" and "The best Disaster Risk Reduction investigative story".
