BRIEFING KIT

OCHA’s role in CACDRRRSince 2008 OCHA Regional Office for Caucasus and Central Asia (ROCCA) has facilitated three highlevelmeetings, bringing together key partners and representatives to agree on the necessary steps to betaken in establishing of the regional centre. Deputy Director of OCHA Geneva and HAO from RO Dubaiparticipated in the first meeting, and a representative of OCHA Emergency Services Branch in Genevaopened the third meeting.At the first meeting in 2008 OCHA agreed to field an expert mission to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan toassess available warehouse space and provide recommendations on this and other issues. AfterKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan later that year in Kuala Lumpur agreed that theywould cooperate in disaster management matters, OCHA ensured that the countries were actionoriented,working with specific deliverables and timeframes.In 2010 OCHA facilitated the signing of an MoU among the three governments, who pledged toimplement activities required for the CACDRRR to be established. Another MoU was signed in 2010between the Kazakhstan Ministry of Emergency Situations and UNDP. The MoU outlined the mainobjectives of this partnership:1. Improved inter-agency cooperation and coordination between national disaster management foreffective joint utilization of resources and capacities.2. Strengthened capacities on disaster mitigation measures, contingency planning, monitoring and earlywarning information exchange, and capacity development.3. Harmonization of disaster management/civil defense between nations and civil society is enhanced inthe Central Asia region.By supporting the creation of the CACDRRR, OCHA advocated strengthened regional cooperation indisaster response and risk reduction, as well as broader cooperation and collaboration among CentralAsian countries. Once the center is officially established, OCHA will work closely with the centre onissues of mutual interest, including early warning, disaster preparedness and response, in particularproviding support in the area of information management.