Gaynor Tanyang
Managing Director, Lumina Ventures
ASEAN-ERAT Member from the Philippines
Gaynor’s path into the disaster management field, and direct engagement as an ASEAN ERAT member was formed through more than ten years of work in the development sector. Her first experience directly with disaster management in the ASEAN context came when she joined Oxfam on a programme being implemented within the AADMER partnership. She tells the AHA Centre, “I was just volunteering with a local organisation, when a contact recommended I apply for the role”.
Having gained some disaster-related experience in her time undertaking gender audits of disaster responses, Gaynor first heard of the AHA Centre through Oxfam’s support to the ASEAN Secretariat developing this new disaster management institution in 2011. She then acted as an observer of the 2013 ASEAN-ERAT training course, managing the simulation exercises, before strengthening her involvement by undertaking the role of facilitator during a 2014 ASEAN-ERAT refresher training. It is this training element that forms a large part of Gaynor’s passion for the work. “Most of my work with NGOs involved training, so that is what I really enjoy most” she states.
As an ASEAN-ERAT member, Gaynor has experienced one deployment. It was this deployment, however, that influenced significant change in the landscape and format of the ASEAN-ERAT course. The deployment was to her home nation of the Philippines, and the assignment was as an initial responder to the devastating Typhoon Haiyan that struck Tacloban in late 2013. Gaynor’s arrival into the affected area was an experience that would stay with her. “Usually, even after a disaster, there are still markets, and people are still going about their lives – but Haiyan was different.
Everything was destroyed. There were no markets, no shops open – no-one cared about your money” she recalls. “When we arrived in Tacloban, our only water was a half-bottle left over from our lunch”.
“AT THAT TIME, WE WERE NOT FULLY PREPARED, AND THIS PREPAREDNESS IS A KEY LESSON WE LEARNED FROM HAIYAN.” GAYNOR ADMITS. “TRAINING CAN HELP YOU PREPARE TO SOME DEGREE, BUT HAIYAN WAS JUST SO DIFFERENT. THE DEVASTATION WAS SO MASSIVE. ALL ASPECTS OF LOGISTICS WERE EXTREMELY CHALLENGING.”
Local knowledge and connections formed key elements of Gaynor’s and the other ASEAN-ERAT members’ ability to gain access to the disaster zone. Without their local Filipino contacts, gaining vehicles and transportation would have been almost impossible. This stands as one of Gaynor’s tips to first responders – “take advantage of local connections and personal contacts”.
The lessons learned from the Haiyan response have guided the AHA Centre during its more recent development, and Gaynor played a central role in the development of these lessons and the recommendations that followed. “After my experience in Haiyan, I realised that the ERAT course needed some changes” she recalls. Her input was accomodated when the AHA Centre expands the roles of ASEAN-ERAT, from assessment towards responses, including pre-deployment preparation. Regarding this preparedness, Gaynor’s primary tip to responders is to “expect the worse – take a bare minimum of items to survive in trying conditions and always carry a strong sense of purpose.”
Written by : William Shea | Photo : AHA Centre
AHA CENTRE WELCOMES
THE NEW ASEAN SECRETARY-GENERAL
2 FEBRUARY 2018
Within a month of his appointment as the new Secretary-General of ASEAN, H.E. Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi visited the home of One ASEAN, One Response – the AHA Centre. Together with Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, H.E. Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee, and other ASEAN Secretariat delegates, Dato Lim Jock Hoi undertook a tour of the AHA Centre’s office in East Jakarta. During this visit, the Executive Director and staff of the AHA Centre shared updates regarding the activities of the organisation, as well as the updated status of the standby relief items in ASEAN’s warehouse.
The Secretary-General was highly supportive of the AHA Centre, and stated his aspiration to enhance multilateral and cross-sectoral cooperation for disaster management in the region. H.E. Lim Jock Hoi further commended the work of the AHA Centre and recommended that the AHA Centre continue to share information about its work and activities, coordinating disaster management across ASEAN. Alongside this, he also committed to support the AHA Centre in its resource mobilisation efforts.
Before his departure, the AHA Centre presented Dato Paduka Lim Jock hoi with an ASEAN vest embroidered with his Excellency’s name. The AHA Centre fully supports the leadership of Dato Lim Jock Hoi as the 14th Secretary-General of ASEAN as well as the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator, and looks forward to further collaboration during his tenure throughout the next five years.
Written by : Shintya Kurniawan | Photo : AHA Centre
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
SIMULATION EXERCISE WITH GIDRM AND SDC, 24-25 JANUARY 2018
AT 04:23AM, THE AHA CENTRE’S WHATSAPP GROUP WAS ALIGHT WITH MESSAGES, AS STAFF IN JAKARTA AND BEYOND WERE ROUSED FROM THEIR SLEEP BY THE NEWS OF AN EARTHQUAKE. THIS SIMULATED EARTHQUAKE EVENT FORMED THE BEGINNING OF THE AHA CENTRE’S EXERCISE WITH GIDRM AND SDC.
EXERCISE
A 7.9 Magnitude earthquake was recorded near Pontianak with 10 Km depth. Disaster Monitoring and Analysis will update if there is a tsunami advisory issued.
EXERCISE
Twelve minutes later, another message appears on the mobile phone screens of the group.
EXERCISE
Given the shallow depth, tsunami warning may be triggered for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
These alerts were followed by a request to gather at the AHA Centre’s Emergency Operations Centre at 7 a.m. and series of internal coordination meetings for the next 36 hours. For the first time ever, the AHA Centre was involved in a two-day scenario, responding to a fictitious large-scale disaster which presumably affected three ASEAN Member-States. Every few hours, new injects were given and complicate the situation. The injects include, among others, a biohazards leakage at an industrial area in Pontianak and a kidnapping case of the ASEAN-ERAT member.
This unique scenario helped staff to practice their internal preparedness and response mechanisms. At the end of the exercise, the AHA Centre evaluated its response mechanism, noting gaps and weaknesses, and discussed the solutions that could support the improvement of the organisation’s readiness in responding to complex disaster situations. This interesting and engaging exercise was facilitated by the Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Written by : Shintya Kurniawan | Photo : AHA Centre
PACIFIC DISASTER CENTRE
Strengthening Disaster Preparedness across Asia-Pacific
with the Pacific Disaster Centre
THE PACIFIC DISASTER CENTER (PDC) IS A HAWAIIAN-BASED ORGANISATION WITH A FOCUS TOWARDS DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS FOR IMPROVING DISASTER MITIGATION, PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY. FOR ALMOST TWO DECADES, PDC HAS DELIVERED A VARIETY OF TOOLS AND SERVICES TO THE GLOBAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY – INCLUDING TO THE AHA CENTRE. SUCH TOOLS AND SERVICES INCLUDE GLOBAL MULTI-HAZARD DISASTER MONITORING, EARLY WARNING MECHANISMS AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, RISK AND VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT TOOLS, MODELING AND VISUALISATION PLATFORMS, SIMULATION EXERCISE SUPPORT, AND A RANGE OF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.
ASEAN’s collaboration with the PDC began in mid-2004, prior to the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the PDC has been constantly involved in the implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER). More recently, the PDC – supported by the United States Government through its US Agency for International Development (USAID) programmes – has worked with ASEAN and the AHA Centre to implement programmes such as the AADMER Work Programme for Risk Assessment, Early Warning, and Monitoring Activity (2010-2015), the AHA Centre Information Communication Technology (ICT) Gap Analysis, and the development of a Disaster Monitoring and Response System (DMRS) powered by PDC’s DisasterAWARE™ platform.
The most notable recent collaboration between the two Centres has been the development of the DMRS. The system was initiated following an offer made by the United States’ President Barack Obama at the First ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in November, 2009, in Singapore. The DRMS is supported by the United States Government through the USAID and US Department of State-funded ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility. The United States has been an ASEAN Dialogue Partner since 1977.
The DMRS enables the AHA Centre to integrate all monitoring of hazard data within one system. The system compiles and transforms various hazard and other natural disaster information from national and international disaster monitoring agencies into a regional, event-tracking and decision-support tool, further enhanced by its utilisation of maps and modelling applications. Through this integration, the AHA Centre operations team can immediately obtain a global overview of any situation, which improves response times and leads to more efficient use of relief resources.
“I would characterise PDC as a very committed and sustainable partner of the AHA Centre. Through their support, we now have comprehensive disaster monitoring tools that allow us to monitor hazards in an almost real-time manner. The early warning alerts allow us to plan ahead of time,” explains Arnel Capili, the Operations Director of the AHA Centre.
Following more than a decade of collaboration, The PDC and the AHA Centre signed a new Memorandum of Intent (MOI) on the 5th of June, 2017, at the AHA Centre’s headquarters in Jakarta.
The MOI aims to strengthen the two Centres’ ongoing partnership in advancing disaster risk reduction and regional cooperation, including steps to progress the vision of One ASEAN One Response. The PDC and AHA Centre will continue working together to pursue new endeavours to support the vision, including a project to conduct a regional risk assessment for the ASEAN Member States that will support the development of sound policies for risk reduction across the region.
Written by : Carla Budiarto | Photo : AHA Centre