Don Gunasekera, Senior Economist, CSIRO, Canberra

The 2004 Asian tsunami illustrated the disproportionate impact that natural disasters have on poorer communities. More recent natural disasters in New Zealand, Japan, Australia and the US have shown that even well-to-do communities can be significantly hard hit by the impact of catastrophic and severe weather events. Preparing for natural disasters has many facets. They can range from adaptive response measures to the use of modern technologies to provide early warnings. A measure which is often talked about and seldom practiced is disaster risk management. In this regard, the recent mid-term review by the UNISDR of the Hyogo Framework for Action to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 is timely. A key message emerging from the UNISDR mid-term review is the need for economies to undertake proper disaster risk assessments that could help them to draw up better risk management plans which can be implemented by effective institutions with adequate resources in a well coordinated manner.

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Senator Daniel Inoye
Chair, U.S. Senate Appropriation Committee
APEC Promotes Stability in the Asia-Pacific

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (Nov. 12, 2010) – Speaking yesterday at the 2010 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Yokohama, Japan, U.S. Senate Appropriation Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawai‘i) said the meeting comes at a time when “the interdependence among the world’s economies have reached a level never seen before.”

Inouye said APEC springs from a “foundation of peace and stability [that has] made it possible for countries with a history of conflict to come together.” He also looked ahead to APEC 2011, which will be hosted by the U.S. in Honolulu, Hawai’i, next November. “We are honored by President Obama’s selection, and his confidence that we will carry out our duty as America’s host city with distinction, deference to diplomacy, and always, with the spirit of aloha,” Inouye said. “Hawai‘i’s people are the faces of APEC. We have been shaped by the history, culture and events of this region.”

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