Seoul – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in the Republic of Korea (ROK), with support from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), hosted a seminar on Multi-Stakeholder Coordination and Cooperation in Disaster Response on 19 October 2022. The seminar brought together 42 ROK humanitarian professionals including government officials, NGO personnel, UN staff as well as academics.

IOM ROK Chief of Mission, Steve Hamilton, kicked off the seminar highlighting that exacerbating natural disasters call for a new way of working in all preparedness and response efforts, particularly strengthened coordination, and collaboration involving an extensive range of actors from the grassroot to the central level, and often across the usual boundaries. Also, Steve made an emphasis on the importance of international cooperation as it is key to overcoming unprecedented challenges posed by increasing natural disasters.

Climate change poses escalating risks to stability and security, with potentially far-reaching consequences. Thus, coordination and cooperation in disaster management among different actors at the community, local, national and international levels have become increasingly crucial. The seminar sought to facilitate the sharing of best practices as well as lessons learned among countries with common challenges in responding to large-scale disasters that require extensive coordination and cooperation beyond usual boundaries. The event was held also to commemorate the publication of the Korean translation of the Minimum Standards for Camp Management 2021 edition. The event aims to leverage countries’ experiences in vertical and horizontal coordination and collaboration to prepare for and respond to unprecedented challenges, thus stimulating innovative approaches in strengthening synchronization across local, national and international actors.  

Daria Mokhnacheva, programme management officer for the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) marked the first session by introducing trends in climate-change induced national disasters and the impact on human as well as economic loss globally and in the Asia-Pacific region.     

In the second session, Silke Banuelos-Kuang, Humanitarian Affairs Officer to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, presented an overview of the humanitarian system at the global, regional and national levels. Meanwhile, Eugene G. Cabrera, Regional Director to the Office of Civil Defense Department of National Defense in the Philippines, and Conrado Jr. Navidad, National Programme Coordinator to IOM Philippines, shed light on the Philippine’s cluster coordination system and multi-sector coordination mechanism through displacement camp management.

During the last part of the seminar, moderated by Professor Sang ok Choi of Korea University, Eunae Lee, Director to the Center for Disaster Safety Education (CDSE), highlighted ROK’s nationa-wide volunteer network and civil-government partnership. Yuko Shibata, Manager to the Japan Platform, also elaborated on Japan’s civil society initiative for disaster response coordination, while Rene S. Meily, President of Philippine Disaster Relief Foundation (PDRF), focused on the Philippines’s private-sector-led coordination efforts in a climate emergency. Lastly, Mark Ghilarducci, Director and Homeland Security Advisor to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), shared the insightful experience of government-led multi-stakeholder emergency coordination in California, before an enlightening Q&A session between experts and attendees wrapped up the seminar.

Since 2014, IOM ROK has taken an essential role in providing a wide range of capacity-building support for ROK humanitarian actors with funding support from USAID-BHA.  

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For more information, please contact Eunice KIM, IOM Republic of Korea, Tel.: +82 70 4820 0291, Email: jikim@iom.int.