(RCG4) Report - Summary of the RCG Fourth Session Summary of the RCG Fourth Session Day 1-24 January 2019

RCG Background

The Asia-Pacific Conferences on Military Assistance to Disaster Relief Operations (APC-MADRO) were organised over a five-year period (2005-2010) with the aim of developing collaborative guidelines to assist the planning of foreign military assistance in support of disaster response operations in the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of this process, the Asia-Pacific Regional Guidelines for the Use of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response Operations (APC-MADRO Guidelines) were finalized and endorsed in 2010.

Building upon the outcomes of the Asia-Pacific Conferences and related guidelines, a multi-stakeholder Regional Consultative Group (RCG) on Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination for Asia and the Pacific was formed in 2014 to act as a regional forum to bring together the humanitarian actors, grass-root organizations, government officials, and military actors involved in disaster response and disaster response preparedness in the region. As outlined in the RCG Terms of Reference, the RCG was formed to:

a) discuss response preparedness planning, with a focus on coordination of operational planning between civilian and military actors;
b) facilitate exchange of information and innovative ideas to enable well-coordinated and needs-based effective disaster response to a broad range of humanitarian emergency operations;
c) strengthen linkages with other relevant platforms with an emphasis on the relationship with Regional Organizations and the Global Consultative Group on Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination.

The chairmanship of the RCG rotates among Member States on an annual basis.

The Third Session of the RCG took place on 5-6 December 2017 at the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre (RHCC). The event was chaired by the Government of Singapore, represented by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the SAF. It continued to build on the outcomes of the RCG First Session (2015) and RCG Second Session (2016) and addressed key issues that are central to advancing the civil-military coordination agenda in Asia-Pacific. The Third Session was attended by more than 130 participants from 26 countries and 24 regional/international organisations, as well as from academia and the private sector.

“The humanitarian system must ensure there is an established platform which fosters dialogue, interaction, information exchange, and joint planning at all levels. The RCG on Humanitarian Civil- Military Coordination provides the opportunity to advance multi-agency and multi-sector response planning.”

Under Secretary Ricardo B. Jalad, Executive Director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and Administrator of the Office of Civil Defence (OCD), Government of the Philippines The Government of Bangladesh, represented by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) and the Bangladesh Armed Forces Division (AFD), was the chair of the RCG in 2018 and hosted the RCG Fourth Session on 24-26 January 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The event was organised with the support of the RCG Secretariat, represented by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the United States Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM).