ASEAN provides the Southeast Asian region with a strategic umbrella for important economic, political, security and socio-cultural initiatives. The ASEAN experience has demonstrated that it offers a successful and progressive model of regional cooperation in disaster management. It is most notable in disaster response where the ten ASEAN member states have come together to provide a regional coordination mechanism for disaster relief.

In 2011, the ASEAN Coordinating Centre on Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) was established — a significant milestone in regional cooperation on disaster response and disaster management. Five years on, reflecting on its successes, three key elements can be identified – political will, operational capacity and emotional bonds – that were critical to regional cooperation in disaster response.

… Said Faisal is a Visiting Senior Fellow with the HADR Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also Senior Advisor to Minister/Head of the National Disaster Management Agency of Indonesia (BNPB) and the former Executive Director of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (the AHA Centre).