Between October 21 and 31, A-PAD coordinated the ten day Study Trip for the Fourth Batch of AHA Centre Executive Programme (ACE Programme) that is a part of six month disaster management training to enhance the capacity of the officers from National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs) of ASEAN Member States. ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) was established on 17 November 2011 to facilitate the cooperation and coordination among ASEAN member states and with the United Nations and international organizations for disaster management and emergency response in the ASEAN region.

During the trip, 17 ACE Programme participants and 4 AHA Centre staff were given lectures on Japanese disaster management system and related overseas aid programs by government agencies such as MOFA and JICA, and NGOs including Japan Platform (JPF). The visitors also had a chance to become acquainted with how private companies and institutes such as Yahoo Japan, BEAMS, Dentsu, and Miyagi Prefecture Fisheries Cooperative Associations, supported disaster preparedness and emergency response through collaboration with NGOs.

　

The participants also visited the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel and Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park. The Underground Discharge Channel was constructed to protect the residents from frequent floods in Tokyo’s outlying districts by draining flood water below ground, storing it, and discharging it into rivers. During the visit to the Channel, many said that the water control system is an example of the best practices in public-private collaboration to mitigate disaster risk and ASEAN countries which suffer frequently from floods, had much to learn from it.