GRIA: Global Resilience Initiative in Asia

Background Paper Prepared by Mika Shimizu and Allen Clark East-West Center Draft 1) Issue/Introduction Traditional case-by-case post-disaster response based disaster management no longer suffices to deal with emerging complex disaster risks the world faces today. The influence of globalization, urbanization and climate change has dramatically changed the scope, severity and impact of many modern day disasters. Specifically, globalization has changed the nature of disaster management and associated public policy, by making both areas more complex, uncertain and difficult to address at the national and global levels. This structural change, largely overlooked by policy and disaster management communities, necessitates a transition from traditional disaster management to a Global Disaster Risk Management (GDRM) approach. The GDRM approach incorporates and focuses on the development of “resilience”(as discussed later) through a better understanding of the impact of the above global changes on policy and disaster management, and pre-disaster (ahead of the event) risk preparedness and management. The “Global Resilience Initiative in Asia (GRIA)” is being initiated to address the existing deficiency of the lack of a GDRM approach in the disaster management regime of Asia.