A-PAD successfully organized a public symposium titled “Unleashing the power of the private sector in Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery” on November 2, at the Ashok Hotel in New Delhi. The symposium was part of a series of pre-conference programs timed to coincide with the 7th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR 2016) held in the Indian capital. Established in 2005, AMCDRR is a biannual conference organized jointly by Asian countries in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

In his opening remarks, Mr. Faisal Djalal, Chairperson at A-PAD, introduced how A-PAD has been formulating a border-free multi-sector platform for disaster management in the Asia Pacific region since its establishment in 2012. In the first session, presenters from Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Japan, addressed how the private sector in cooperation with governments and NGOs have engaged in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in their countries, what lessons they have learned, and what challenges they continue to face. The topic for the second session was medical and health sector collaboration in DRR. While Mr. Firzan Hashim, Deputy Executive Director at the Sri Lankan Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) addressed the psychological damages of disasters and the importance of the psychosocial response to disaster, Quazi Quamruzzaman, Chairperson at Dhaka Community Hospital Trust (DCHT) in Bangladesh, spoke about the global concerns over epidemic-prone infectious diseases and called for multi-sector collaboration to tackle outbreaks of such diseases.

The conference attracted an audience of more than 70 people including government officials, local NGO workers, university students, researchers, and United Nations delegates from several countries. All showed great interest in how A-PAD has worked to create multi-sector platform models in six countries, encouraging private-sector engagement with the A-PAD model.

A-PAD is grateful to audience members who took part in an enthusiastic exchange of ideas with speakers, displaying an avid interest in diverse aspects of disaster risk reduction. We wish to give special thanks to Mr. Usec Ricardo B. Jalad, Executive Director at National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) of the Philippine Office of Civil Defense, for sharing his knowledge and experience throughout the entire symposium and taking part in active discussions on the role of government in disaster management.