OREANDA-NEWS. November 11, 2010. A Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Central Asian Centre for Disaster Response and Risk Reduction was signed by the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defence under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan in Almaty.

The Memorandum provides for the creation of an Organising Committee comprised of authorized representatives of member-countries’ emergency ministries and departments to speed up domestic procedures needed for signing and ratification of an intergovernmental agreement for the establishment of the Centre.

The Organising Committee will also help to build and develop disaster response and risk reduction capacities in the region, as well as assist in strengthening synergies between government officials and regional and international disaster risk reduction stakeholders and populations living in high-risk areas.

The establishment, functioning and development of the Centre is fully a political will expressed by member-states who are party to this process and who demonstrate their interest in the coordination of response to natural and man-induced emergencies in the region through participation in joint assessment and implementation of disaster risk reduction measures, information-sharing and early warning, the development of preparedness measures and strengthening disaster response capacities.

The Centre’s primary tasks are as follows:

(i) Expansion of regional cooperation and strengthening the capacities of ministries/departments responsible for emergency situations prevention and elimination;

(ii) Regional risk assessment, contingency planning and early warning;

(iii) Participation in international information and observation systems and monitoring networks.

Priority short-term actions are as follows:

• Signing and ratification of the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Centre;

• Evaluation of priority directions and scope of work by stages (phases) for the establishment of the Centre;

• Creation of information database of transboundary risk zones and objects, development of technologies and standards of data collection, processing, storage, protection and sharing;

• Improving national and creating and developing regional monitoring, early identification and early warning systems for disasters;

• Development of proposals for harmonization of disaster legislation in regional states against template for international disaster response regulatory standards;

• Preparation and carrying out of training workshops for international humanitarian response, contingency planning and regional risk assessment.

The establishment of the Central Asian Disaster Response and Risk Reduction Centre initiated by Kazakhstan fully corresponds to one of the priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters (http://www.unisdr.org/eng/hfa/hfa.htm) in the part of creating national and regional disaster prevention mechanisms. In this regard it is anticipated that the proposed Center will, in the long term, be in a position to strengthen member-states’ National Platforms or other multi-sectoral mechanisms for disaster risk reduction in the region.