Asia, the most disaster prone continent in the world experienced more than half of the world's major disasters in the last half century. As a result, economies and the very fabric of human societies were affected, lives were lost and nations continue to struggle in a bid to recover.

Alarmingly, these disasters are on a rising trend as a result of many factors including global climate change, rapid and unplanned urbanization, environmental degradation and depletion of water resources. As a result, there is a feverish intensification of initiatives to address disaster reduction, response and the development of total disaster risk management.

Multilevel networking and collaborations have increased among stakeholders of whom NGOs feature prominently apart from governments and international organizations. NGOs play an undeniably critical role - their actions range between humanitarian aid to complementing disaster preparedness programs by respective governments.

In February 2002, the Asia Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) Kobe and the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) in Kobe with the assistance of the ASEAN Foundation, brought together more than 30 NGOs from all over Asia to discuss the need for a network of NGOs for Disaster Reduction & Response in Asia.

As a result, the Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network (ADRRN) was formed. This loose body of NGOs was consolidated in December 2003 and in June 2004, the structure, content and direction of the ADRRN was clearly formulated and implemented.

On behalf of the ADRRN, let me welcome all of you to our website and invite you to join our network. Together, we can make a difference, for Asia.

Yours sincerely

DR. JEMILAH MAHMOOD
Chairperson,Coordination Committee
ADRRN

VISION

"Safe community environments and disaster resilient societies"

MISSION

"Promote coordination and collaboration among NGOs and other stakeholders for effective and efficient disaster reduction and response in the Asia-Pacific region"

OBJECTIVES

• To develop an interactive network of NGOs committed to achieving excellence in the field of disaster reduction and response.
• To raise the relevant concerns of NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region to the larger community of NGOs globally, through various international forums and platforms
• To promote best practices and standards in disaster reduction and response
• To provide a mechanism for sharing reliable information and facilitating capacity building among network members and other stakeholders