The Governing Council of the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of
Disaster Information Management held its second session in Tehran on 31 January 2018.
The Council reviewed the Centre’s work since its first session and expressed its
appreciation to the Centre for fully implementing all the key activities of the approved
workplan for 2017 on enhancing knowledge on policy options and programmes for
strengthening disaster information management.
The Council also reviewed the governance and the administrative and financial status
of the Centre. It commended the finalization of the host country agreement between the
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific establishing the Centre as a regional institution of the Commission,
pursuant to Commission resolution 71/11, and noted that the Centre commenced its
presence in Tehran in January 2018 in accordance with the decision of the Committee on
Disaster Risk Reduction on its fifth session.
The Council endorsed the proposed workplan of the Centre for 2018 and its strategy
for 2019 and the biennium 2020–2021, which were in line with the approved strategic plan
of the Centre and its three pillars, namely (a) knowledge and information repository,
(b) capacity development, training and knowledge-sharing in disaster information
management and (c) information services on innovations for cross-border disasters. The
Centre’s key activities for 2018 would include initiation of a regional network and alert
system for combating sand and dust storms, sharing of experiences in subregional
transboundary seismic hazard mapping and a capacity development programme on disaster
information management for disaster risk reduction and resilience, with a focus on multihazard activities. The Council also recommended that the Centre should incorporate the
technical recommendations of the expert group meeting on sand and dust storms into its
future programme of work within the scope and mandate given to it and taking into account
the availability of funds.
The Commission may wish to review the report of the Council and provide the
secretariat with guidance for the future work of the Centre.