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India hosted the "EAS-India Workshop 2012: Building Regional Framework for Earthquake Risk Management" from November 8-9, 2012 in New Delhi. As a follow up of the outcome of the workshop, Government of India has established East Asia Summit - Earthquake Risk Reduction Centre (EAS-ERR Centre) in February 2013, which is now hosted at the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi.

At the 3rd East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting (EAS FMM) held in July 2013, India proposed setting up of a network of 24x7 Points of Contact (PoC) among the National Disaster Response Agencies of the 18 EAS member countries to facilitate coordinated and speedy response to earthquake. The network of 24x7 PoCs of 18 EAS countries is envisaged to be the first point of contact in case of a disaster. Individual/institution designated as 24x7 PoC of a particular country would have to be integrated with disaster response institutions and mechanisms in his/her country to ensure quick and effective delivery. The two PoCs will have different roles, one for administration and the other disaster emergency communication and data sharing.

India also proposed setting up a Virtual Knowledge Portal (VKP) as a web based tool to share knowledge and best practices related to natural disaster risk assessment, mitigation, preparedness and response, and also to provide web services for multilateral coordination following earthquake and other natural disasters in East Asia. The portal is developed and hosted by EAS-ERR Centre at NIDM, New Delhi, India. The Centre would be a cooperation framework under the East Asia Countries with the aim to consolidate and strengthen the network of disaster information. It will attempt to improve the cooperation of international responders in the immediate aftermath of major natural, technological and environmental disasters. The network of 24x7 PoCs and VKP would be complementary to each other.

Aim:

The aim of the EAS-ERR Centre includes:-

  • Development of a comprehensive roadmap on regional framework for disaster risk management for mutual benefit of EAS Member Countries.
  • Use of VKP to build an institutional framework through 24X7 Point of Contact (PoC) for regional preparedness and response against disasters in the region.
  • Evolve mechanisms for strengthening collaboration between operational/field and knowledge/research based institutions in the region.
  • Develop strategy for training and capacity development on importance of response preparedness in the region leading to effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and implementation of related issue based projects at regional levels.

Objectives:

The main objectives of EAS-ERR are to:-

  • Bring all countries from across the EAS region to establish cross border assistance during disasters response.
  • Provide international assistance across borders in affected countries and to develop emergency response framework and develop SOP for emergency assistance such as life saving drugs, entry of search and rescue teams including search dogs etc. in the affected country.
  • Deal with different aspects of multilateral response to disasters which affect multiple countries.
  • Provide a road map for coordinating multi-dimensional measures against disasters.