Central Asia and South Caucasus Regional Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction
A meeting of the Ministers of Disaster Management and Emergency Situations of the Central Asian and South Caucasus countries will be held in 29-30 January in Bishkek hosted by the Government of Kyrgyzstan to discuss and agree on the Regional statement of the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus on cooperation and coordination in the implementation of the post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction to be adopted at the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) from 14 to 18 March 2015 in Sendai, Japan. The Statement will express the intent and commitment towards the post-2015 Framework for DRR. The Regional Ministerial Statement will be conferred and delivered at the WCDRR in Sendai, Japan.
The Ministerial meeting to be held in January 2015 is a result of a series of consultation meetings held in the CASC region since 2013. In addition to the Regional Consultations for Central Asia and South Caucasus on the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (HFA2) held in March 2013 and April 2014 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, two Regional Ministerial Conferences on “Regional Cooperation in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia” were held in October 16-18, 2013 and in September 18-19, 2014, in Bishkek under the “Central Asia + Japan” Dialogue, also including the countries of South Caucasus region.
These 2 meetings were followed by the first meeting of the experts of Disaster Management Authorities of Central Asian and South Caucasus countries, held in November 24-25, 2014 in Bishkek focused on strengthening the regional cooperation in the area of Disaster Risk Reduction. The Expert Group meeting agreed on a draft Regional Ministerial statement on HFA2, and a ‘Framework of cooperation’ was drafted with priority directions, including the need to establish a Regional Forum of Disaster Management Authorities, strengthening cooperation in the area of early warning and information management for large scale and trans- boundary disasters and harmonizing legal base and bilateral and multilateral agreements.