MANILA, Philippines – “The Philippines is ready to host the 2nd Disaster Response Dialogue (DRD) in Manila on 11 and 12 September 2014,” Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, assured the other DRD proponents during the DRD High Level Preparatory Meeting held in Geneva from April 09 to 10.
Ambassador Rebong also presented the Philippine experience in handling Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).
“We need to engage in strategic partnership within and among actors of the UN system, IOs, NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent and Member States and to exchange best practices and lessons learned. We also need to reach out to new partners, including the academe, the private sector, and the media,” she said.
The DRD Conference in Manila would be the best forum to address these necessities.
The Disaster Response Dialogue is the brainchild of the government of Switzerland, through its Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). It is aimed at improving the cooperation in international disaster assistance, identifying common challenges, exchanging best practices, and developing new ideas for moving forward with particular focus on the role of affected states.
The Philippines, being one of the most vulnerable states to natural disasters, fully supports the DRD, which provides a facilitated platform for improving trust and mutual cooperation between disaster-prone countries and humanitarian actors.
