UN: Malaysia must champion regional disaster management

KUALA LUMPUR: In the light of lessons learned from last year’s floods, Malaysia as the Asean chair should champion regional coordination for disaster management and prepared­ness, said UN Under-Secretary-General for Hu­manitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos (pic).

Amos, who met top policymakers here recently, said she was in Malaysia to streng­then humanitarian relief coordination with Asean.

“This is the first time anyone in my role has visited Malaysia. Part of the reason for the visit is that Malaysia is the chair of Asean this year,” she said in an interview.

Amos said she wanted to continue to build the work her office had been doing with the Asean Coordinating Centre For Humanitarian Assistance.

“Asean has a major humanitarian response element in the sense of supporting countries in what is the most disaster-prone region in the world,” she said.

Apart from the December floods which displaced 250,000 people, she said Malaysia was not often affected by natural disasters.

“So it’s important for me that au­­thorities in Malaysia appre­ciate and understand the work we have done historically on these issues with Asean.

“We hope Malaysia will champion this agenda,” she said.

Amos said it was also important for her office to get support from Malaysia, which is among the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

She said high on the agenda of the security council was the displacement of refugees and the protection of civilians, particularly women and children in conflict zones.

Amos added that she wanted to get a sense of Malaysia’s priorities on the council.