In October, YAKKUM Emergency Unit had the opportunity to participate in the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR). The APMCDRR is the main regional platform in Asia-Pacific for promoting coordination and cooperation in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The conference brings together governments of UN member states, intergovernmental organisations, international and national organisations and stakeholder groups to accelerate progress on disaster risk reduction at the Asia-Pacific regional level.
APMCDRR is an event held every two years. This year, APMCDRR will be held in Manila, Philippines, for five days, from 13 to 18 October 2024, with the theme "Leap towards 2030: Raising ambition in Asia-Pacific to accelerate disaster risk reduction".
At this year's APMCDRR, YEU was actively involved in discussion sessions, partner events, side events, and exhibitions. YEU, together with CDP Philippines, had the opportunity to showcase IDEAKSI and Pinnovation Academy innovations at the APMCDRR 2024 marketplace. The exhibition was attended by various organisations during the APMCDRR event. YEU and CDP occupied Booth E27 – Community Led Innovation Partnership (CLIP). This booth served as a platform to share innovations from YEU and CDP's assisted groups in disaster response, disaster resilience and inclusive, community-led disaster risk reduction.
On the first day, Monday 13 October 2024, the YEU delegation and Yustina Wardani, representative of the assisted group from the Swabantu Luhur Jiwa Group, participated in the partner event, The Asian Pacific Local Leaders Forum for Disaster Resilience (APLL4DR) Awards. On this occasion, Yustina Wardani was selected as one of the champions of local leaders in disaster resilience (Local Leader for Disaster Resilience). Yustina Wardani became one of the champions for her persistence in assisting people with psychosocial disabilities (ODDP) by integrating community-based rehabilitation, disaster risk reduction and economic empowerment.
On the second day, YEU participated in a multi-stakeholder discussion forum entitled Regional EW4All: Voices from the Ground on Early Warning, Early Action: How to Achieve Gender Responsive and Inclusive Universal Coverage?. On this occasion, Dhinar Riski from YEU shared YEU's good practices in involving stakeholders in early warning. Dhinar said that CSOs have an important role as catalysts and collaborators as well as capacity builders in early warning. The role of CSOs as collaborators in bringing together academics and local communities also ensures government support in the development of community-initiated early warning systems.
On the fourth day, YEU also had the opportunity to be a guest speaker at the Philippines Pavilion during the session entitled Collaborative Strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: A Landscape Approach. This session discussed the relationship between disasters and climate change. Dhinar Riski shared good practices in increasing the resilience of dryland farmers to climate change using a landscape approach with the aim of increasing agricultural production, conserving biodiversity and improving livelihoods.
YEU's involvement in APMCDRR serves as a means to share good practices in inclusive community disaster risk reduction at the Asia-Pacific regional level. Accelerated disaster risk reduction will undoubtedly be achieved through effective collaboration between the government, academics, the private sector, the community and the media. As one of Indonesia's CSOs, YEU plays an important role as a catalyst and collaborator in inclusive disaster risk reduction efforts so that no one is left behind.