The University of Hawaiʻi’s National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC), led by Professor Karl Kim, participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings in Seattle this summer. The center is an extension of the UH Mānoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the College of Social Sciences. It is one of seven partners of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium.
NDPTC was part of the Senior Disaster Management Officials’ Forum, organized by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell. The theme was “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All” to address the importance of building interconnected, innovative and inclusive collaborations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The forum is organized annually by APEC’s Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG). EPWG provides a platform for disaster management collaborations among 21 member economies, including Russia, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. EPWG was established after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Work by NDPTC
NDPTC has been facilitating disaster risk reduction capacity building in Indonesia with the support of the United States Agency for International Development. The Investing in Human Capital Development in Disaster Management project is a consortium between UH, Mercy Corps, Peta Bencana and the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. It aims to support Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) in knowledge and technical skills development.
FEMA invited NDPTC to accompany and facilitate Indonesia’s delegation led by Lilik Kurniawan, BNPB’s logistics and equipment deputy. Kurniawan addressed the senior leaders’ roundtable on the importance of adaptive crisis management. Kim, NDPTC’s executive director, addressed a session on UH’s experience facilitating disaster management knowledge exchange between the U.S. and Indonesia.
The delegation visited Mt. Vernon, Washington, to learn about a collaborative effort in flood mitigation. UH also facilitated a knowledge exchange for the Indonesian delegation with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the Institute of Hazard Mitigation Planning and Research at the University of Washington.
