The five-year ESCAP campaign will seek to increase relevant activities at the national, sub-regional and regional levels, while building on efforts to strengthen regional cooperation in applications of space technology and GIS.
ESCAP is planning two intergovernmental meetings to prepare a Plan of Action to guide Asia-Pacific countries in the application of these high-end technologies in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management.
4 October 2012: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) has announced the launch of a five-year campaign to improve disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management, as well as to minimize the environmental costs of regional economic growth. The announcement came on the first day of UN World Space Week, observed from 4-10 October 2012.
The campaign, titled “Asia-Pacific Years of Action for Applications of Space Technology and the Geographic Information System for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development 2012-2017,” will increase relevant activities at the national, sub-regional and regional levels, while building on efforts to strengthen regional cooperation in applications of space technology and geographic information system (GIS).
ESCAP notes that it is planning two intergovernmental meetings to prepare a five-year Plan of Action to guide Asia-Pacific countries in the application of these high-end technologies in DRR. The annual Intergovernmental Consultative Committee on the long-standing Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific (RESAP) which will take place in November 2012, and aims to support least developed (LDCs), land-locked developing (LLDCs) and Pacific island developing countries to build human resource capacity in the use of space applications for DRR. In December 2012, in collaboration with GeoInformatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) of Thailand, ESCAP will convene an intergovernmental meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. [UNESCAP Press Release]