Promoting Practical Regional Co-Operation And Capacity- Building In Emergency And Environmental Work

LWF/WS Asia Programmes: Bangladesh + Cambodia + India + Nepal

The LWF/WS Asia programmes have a long history of informal co-operation. AZEECON was formed in December 1997 in order to expand and strengthen regional co-operation to support grassroots-work in-country in emergency preparedness and management, and related environmental issues

A. Justification

• Common vulnerability to natural disasters in the four countries
• Similar experiences in emergency, environmental work and disaster preparedness
• Low-level exchange and interaction over many years

B. AZEECON Objectives

• Strengthen capacity, performance, quality and effectiveness of AZEECON partners'
• Promote integration of development and emergency components of programmes
• Promote practical co-operation and co-ordination amongst regional partners

C. Existing/Planned Actions

• Regular exchange, exposure, training visits for relevant field staff (4 v per year).
• Joint capacity building and training in emergency/disaster preparedness
• Information/knowledge exchange, including strategy development of AZEECON partners networks, sharing
• Annual planning, review and co-ordination meeting of AZEECON Members
• Other modest activities in response to need and opportunity.

D. Longer Term Ambitions

• Professionalizing disaster preparedness and response mechanisms
• Formalising/quality improvement of capacity building/training and information elements
• Maximising emergency coalitions in-country (link to national networks)
• Improved design and impact of disaster preparedness approaches
• Development of appropriate meaningful and cost-effective grassroots mitigation efforts
• Preparedness initiatives on the ground in all 4 countries

E. Co-ordination

• No administration. LWF Cambodia serves as the present focal point.
• ACT Netherlands has provided modest core funding for four years (1998-2002)
• For Exchange Visits, four countries rotate hosting

F Constraints/Challenges

• Like disaster preparedness, giving this less pressing or immediate task due priority.
• All partners/senior staff are heavily engaged in their ongoing programme work.
• Field staff may not be available for exchange visits and training.
• Like all regional co-operation, seek to make interaction meaningful and practical, achieving a satisfactory output/end product for our efforts; and building something more useful than the individual country programmes could achieve.