New Delhi: - On April 16,2014, Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari participated in the Expert Group Meeting on Capacity Development for Disaster Information Management in South and South West Asia, hosted by the UNESCAP. Speaking to regional delegates, Mr. Haidari noted that although Afghanistan has a good disaster management strategy, the country lacks technical human resource, early warning systems, and a national disaster information management database, among other things.
Mr. Haidari asked UNESCAP to consider supporting the establishment of a regional disaster management cooperation mechanism where the experience and expertise of countries like India, Iran, Turkey, and others could be pooled to assist others that lack such capacities during disaster emergency situations. He also proposed that a disaster management institute could be established within the South Asian University, an academic institution of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which Afghanistan and other member states fund annually. This would allow students from Afghanistan and other countries in the South and West Asia regions to study best practices in disaster management and train others upon return home.
Given the importance of the issue to Afghanistan, as one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters, Mr. Haidari authored the following article to discuss how the countries of the region could work together to assist each other, as well as Afghanistan.
Regional Cooperation: Governance and Disaster Management in Afghanistan
By M. Ashraf Haidari Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Magazine
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