President Benigno Aquino III will lead Thursday’s Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. The meeting was organised by the Philippines back in the 2012 Asem Summit and will be attended by some 36 Asian and European countries.

The theme for the meeting is ‘Post-Haiyan: A Way Forward’ and will showcase innovations used by the Philippines to address disaster management such as:

• Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards)
• GMMA-READY (Enhancing Greater Metro Manila’s Institutional Capacities for Effective Disaster/Climate Risk Management towards Sustainable Development)

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that the president will deliver the keynote address in the opening of the meeting, which runs from 4 to 6 June.

Aside from discussing disaster management best practices post-typhoon Yolanda, the meeting aims to produce a document called the Tacloban Declaration which will outline proposals for improved disaster management.

The declaration is seen as a ‘timely development’ to Asem’s decade-old Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA), a global paradigm on disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) that will expire by 2015.

Around 150 national and local government officials, scientists, academicians, representatives from NGOs and international organisations from 36 countries are expected to attend the meeting.