By Rashid Shirinov
At the end of February, participants from all five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) will discuss issues of natural disasters at the Forum on Financial Protection against Natural Disasters in Almaty, Ko Takeuchi, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist for Central Asia at the World Bank told Trend.
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"It is the first initiative of such a kind in Central Asia and we aim to encourage countries to think and adopt measures on how to be financially prepared for natural disasters," the expert said.
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Takeuchi further said that natural disasters have no borders and can often affect a few countries of Central Asia at once. "At the same time, major disasters happening in a neighboring country could echo throughout the entire region. Governments of Central Asia recognize this and have taken steps towards addressing disaster risks jointly."
"For instance, bearing in mind the importance of coordinated efforts to jointly address disaster risks, the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) has been established as a platform for better coordination of disaster risk management initiatives at the regional level. Besides this, the countries have been supporting each other with bilateral aid after natural disasters," the expert informed.
According to Takeuchi, there is, however, much more work to be done to boost regional cooperation and coordination on disaster risk management, and particularly on financial cooperation and data sharing.
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