17th RCC took place in the Philippines
The 17th meeting of the Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) was held in Manila, Philippines, from 5-7 December 2022.
The three-day meeting is hosted in collaboration with the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Department of National Defense, Philippines and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) with an overarching theme of ‘Sustainable Resilience through Inclusive Governance, Finance, and Local Action’.
The RCC mechanism seeks to promote consultation and cooperation on reducing disaster and climate risks. Established in 2000 with ADPC as its Secretariat, it comprises of National Disaster Management Organizations (NDMOs) from over 20 member countries across Asia and the Pacific region.
The RCC mechanism has promoted peer advocacy and the exchange of expertise in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) for the last 20 years. Today, ADPC facilitates the RCC as one of its main institutional organs.
This is the second time that the Philippines is hosting the RCC – having last hosted the 8th RCC meeting in 2010 which recognized the need to scale up community-level action for DRR in all high-risk communities.
The 17th meeting will be divided into three sub-themes: Achieving the 2030 Goals and Targets through Coherence and Regional Cooperation; Strengthening the implementation of climate and disaster risk reduction through inclusive approaches; and Advancing public and private investments and financing for building resilience.
Delegations from 18 countries at the opening of the 17th RCC on 5 December 2022.
Observers from the United Nations, international organizations, academia, civil society, and research institutes across the region have also been invited to participate.
The 17th RCC meeting will deliver the Manila Statement, which will summarize the key discussion and action points as well as provide guidance to ADPC on its future work and strategies in Asia and the Pacific.
Midway through the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), there was a 1.5-fold increase in the number of countries with national/or local DRR strategies.
However, the implementation of these national policies, strategies, and plans has been affected in the past two years due to the pandemic, wherein national budgets and public human resources aligned for DRR and CR implementation have been utilized to support the pandemic response and recovery. Therefore, progress on planned actions has slowed.
The 17th meeting aims to accelerate the implementation of the SFDRR, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through inclusive governance, finance, regional cooperation, and local action.
It will also seek to establish key action points to enable the RCC to support member countries in implementing the 2030 Global Frameworks, deliberate and share good scalable practices on public and private financing for resilience building, and identify inclusive solutions to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Global Frameworks.
OCD is the implementing arm of the Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
ADPC is an autonomous international organization based in Bangkok, Thailand, that works to build the resilience of people and institutions to disasters and climate change impacts in Asia and the Pacific.
The 17th RCC meeting is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).