ASEM closes with adoption of 'Post-Haiyan Tacloban Declaration'

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The three-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) ended today with the adoption of "Post-Haiyan Tacloban Declaration."

In a statement, Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Maria Zenaida Angara Collinson, chair of ASEM Manila conference, said that the declaration captured the commitment of more than 280 participants to advance DRRM cooperation and collaboration, drawing on the best practices developed and lesson learned after super typhoon Haiyan.

The conference endorsed the submission, through the ASEM Senior Officials Meeting, the Post-Haiyan Tacloban Declaration to ASEM Leaders during the 10th ASEM Summit in Milan on October 16-17, 2014, and endorse the same as an ASEM contribution to the post- 2015 framework for DRR.

Participants in the meeting also agreed to endorse the declaration and invited other ASEM partners to consider advocating the Post-Haiyan Tacloban Declaration in upcoming international, regional, national and local DRRM meetings and events, especially during the discussions on the post-2015 framework for DRR, Collinson said.

The conference was co-hosted by Japan, Switzerland and the European Union, and co-sponsored by Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Spain, Sweden and Vietnam, as well as partners from the international humanitarian assistance system and DRRM stakeholders.

Haiyan, which ravaged most parts of the country in November last year with Tacloban City in Leyte as one of the worst-hit areas, left at least 6,200 people dead, over 1,700 others missing and millions of families homeless.