United Nations

sudden-onset disasters, including ASEAN member-states Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, with Singapore having chaired or hosted events.302

ACMC played a prominent role in supporting the ASEAN-Australia Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Dialogue held in Melbourne in April 2018. The initiative focused on the implementation of the WPS Agenda in ASEAN and the region, addressing national action plans and promoting gender equality within ASEAN.303 The WPS agenda emerged out of the UN in recent decades as a significant cross-cutting thematic program to strengthen global peace and security by not only recognizing the unique impact conflicts have upon women, men, boys, and girls, but also advocated for the inclusion of women in conflict prevention, transition, and peace processes.

United Nations

The UN is a key partner of ASEAN and provides a platform for ASEAN to build global leadership. ASEAN and UN began the ASEANUN Joint Strategic Plan of Action on Disaster Management (JSPADM) in 2012 and launched the JSPADM IV (2021-2025) in October 2021 on the sidelines of the 9th AMMDM. The UN agencies present in ASEAN member-states provide sector-specific support and expertise before, during, and after a disaster. They usually work in partnership with memberstates’ NDMOs and relevant line ministries on emergency preparedness and response. The UN and ASEAN have developed a strong relationship since the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Apart from working together in times of disaster, other collaborations include capacity-building workshops, knowledge-sharing exercises, and joint training programs.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

OCHA plays a critical role in coordinating international humanitarian assistance. It provides support at the regional and country levels to coordinate humanitarian action, develop humanitarian policies, manage humanitarian information systems, oversee humanitarian pooled funds, and support resource mobilization for the humanitarian community. Within the framework of the ASEAN-UN JSPADM, ASEAN has engaged OCHA to enhance interoperability in times of need. This partnership led to the ASEAN-OCHA Interoperability Brief in 2017 and the ASEAN-OCHA Partnership Roadmap in 2020. During the 2021 Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks, which OCHA coordinates annually, ASEAN and OCHA organized a joint session to promote international awareness of the partnership, providing an overview of regional policy and practices in ASEAN and the roadmap of ASEAN and OCHA in deepening disaster resilience cooperation.304

OCHA works with the AHA Centre to coordinate international humanitarian assistance with the regional mechanisms. While OCHA traditionally takes the lead among international responders in supporting the affected state government in disaster responses, there has been a shift in this dynamic in ASEAN. In the aftermath of the 2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami, the AHA Centre for the first time was put in charge of coordinating offers of international and non-government assistance in support of Indonesia. The influence of international actors such as the UN remained relatively high but were operationalized in some shifting ways. OCHA played a support role rather than a leading role in mobilizing the necessary clusters in the humanitarian Cluster System. The clusters were instead led by national and local government representatives from Indonesia in the emergency response.

Figure 17 shows AHA Centre and OCHA resources and tools that support DM in ASEAN member-states, as laid out in the 2017 ASEAN Joint Disaster Response Plan.305

Figure 18 shows significant collaborations from 2017 through 2021 between the AHA Centre and external partners, including states, NGOs, regional organizations, academic and research organizations, and the private sector.306