Christopher Chen

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of natural hazards still looms large. While pandemic response remains dominant, states and societies also need to be prepared for concurrent risks and hazards. If unaccounted for, the overlapping effects of a pandemic and a natural hazard for example, can compound socio-economic vulnerabilities in countries. This article assesses the effects of concurrent risk events, and how they impact states and societies in the Asia-Pacific. With overseas travel and supply chain restrictions severely hampering the movement of relief items and international humanitarian workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to empower and strengthen local humanitarian actors became acute. This article further critically examines the role of new technologies in adapting the sector in terms of remote management, empowering local staff, providing an alternative to in-kind assistance, and localizing global supply chains. The underappreciated activities and mandates of regional organizations and initiatives in the sub-regions of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island countries facilitated localization efforts and illustrate the importance of the regional level in multilevel approaches to disaster governance.

The Southwest Pacific is considered one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to natural hazards. Five of the Pacific Island States (PIS) rank among the top 20 most-at risk countries in the World Risk Index, with Vanuatu and Tonga ranking first and second respectively. The Southwest Pacific neighbours Southeast Asia and both regions are exposed to a variety of natural hazards, resulting in significant damage and loss of lives annually. Similar exposure to climate-induced hazards raises the potential to create a coalition of affected states from the Asia-Pacific to share knowledge of disaster governance in areas where niche capabilities have been developed and shape the global debate on the effects of natural hazards and climate-induced disasters. This article argues that inter-regional partnership on disaster governance is the next step in the Asia-Pacific to respond to a collective action problem affecting two sub-regions - Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific. Through the conduct of desk research and interviews, this article first presents findings and observations on the disaster governance landscape and future developments in the Pacific. It then discusses disaster management frameworks and initiatives that ASEAN has institutionalised, and how work in the two sub-regions can complement one another and provide a platform to help shape the global agenda on disaster governance and climate change.