Indonesia Hosts Int'l Conference on Disaster Mitigation

Kompas, Tuesday, 3 November 2009

KOMPAS IMAGES/DHONI SETIAWAN

BANDUNG, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia will host an international training consortium for disaster mitigation in the health sector on November 16, 2009, the chief of the Health Ministry’s Crisis Management Center, Rustam Pakaya, said here on Tuesday. Rustam said delegations from at least 10 countries had confirmed their presence at the conference. Among the ten countries were Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Bhutan, Maldives, South Korea and Indonesia.

He said Indonesian participants of the conference would be the send chiefs and staffs of the Crisis Management Center’s branches in Jakarta, Palembang, Medan, Semarang, Banjarmasin, Denpasar, Manado, Makassar, Surabaya, Jayapura and Padang. Supported by the Medical Faculty of the University of Indonesia, the conference would be a forum for exchange of experience among its participants about ways to handle health crises after natural disasters.

"The meeting is expected to formulate a standard pattern for handling health crises occurring after disasters," said Rustam adding that Indonesia would also share its experience in managing crises from the series of natural disasters that had h hit Indonesia recently.

Meanwhile, a National Evaluation of Emergency Response and Health Crisis Recovery was opened on November 2 and to last until November 3, 2009. The meeting is participated in by 100 officials from related offices across Indonesia.

Chief of the organizing committee for the national evaluation, Dr Lucky Tjahjono, expected participants of the meeting will share the resultd of the evaluation to fellow Health Department officials in the regions.