Jakarta, 25 January 2018 – Following the successful implementation of the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN (DELSA) project during the period of 2012 – 2017, the Government of Japan continues supporting ASEAN in advancing its disaster management and preparedness strategies. Supported by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (the AHA Centre) has been entrusted to implement the second phase of DELSA, effective in January 2018 until December 2020. The total funds invested in advancing the disaster emergency logistics capability of ASEAN worth over seven million USD. The three-year project is in line with the four pillars identified in the Roadmap for Enhancing ASEAN Emergency Logistics to 2020, which are: Logistics Systems, Human Resources, Training and Innovation.
The second phase of DELSA covers several activities to further enhance ASEAN’s preparedness and response capacity to reduce and address the impacts of natural disasters across Southeast Asian countries. It includes the establishment of two satellite warehouses in the Philippines and Thailand, in addition to the existing regional stockpile in Subang, Malaysia, and the development of long-term agreements with suppliers. A fully-integrated network of regional warehouses and suppliers will allow the AHA Centre to increase the speed and the scale of ASEAN’s response to disasters. In the past six years since its establishment, the AHA Centre has responded to 19 emergencies across 7 ASEAN countries, ranging from earthquakes, floods, landslides and typhoons as well as human-induced disasters.
The funding from Japan will also be utilised to strengthen the capacity of National Disaster Management Organisations (NDMOs) through capacity building on disaster management, including emergency logistics. Furthermore, the second phase of DELSA will support the development of a multi-stakeholders collaboration mechanism for innovation in disaster emergency logistics involving private enterprises, academic and research institutions as well as the military.
Eventually, the second phase of DELSA will contribute to the realisation of the ASEAN Declaration on ‘One ASEAN One Response’, signed by Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Member States at the 28th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR, on September 6th 2016. The Declaration reaffirms the ASEAN’s vision to increase the speed, the scale, and the solidarity of ASEAN when responding to disasters as one in the region and outside the region.
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About the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance
The AHA Centre is an inter-governmental organisation established by ten (10) ASEAN Member States on 17 November 2011 with the aim to facilitate cooperation and coordination amongst ASEAN Member States and with relevant United Nations and international organisations in promoting regional collaboration in disaster management. The AHA Centre is based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
For more information regarding the AHA Centre, please contact:
Ms. Shintya Kurniawan
(Communications Officer of the AHA Centre)
Email: shintya.kurniawan@ahacentre.org
Phone: +62 21 2982 7793 ext. 108 (office)
