1st Integrated Intersessional Meetings of ICG/IOTWMS

After several years of international collaboration and development, facilitated and coordinated by IOC-UNESCO, the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) became operational on 31 March 2013 with Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs) established by Australia, India and Indonesia independently providing tsunami advisory services to the Member States of the region. Current and future work of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for IOTWMS (ICG/IOTWMS) is focused towards sustenance and improvements to the system, as well as enhancing community awareness and response mechanisms in the IOTWMS member states.

At its 11^th session held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 18-20 April 2017, the ICG/IOTWMS decided to conduct the Indian Ocean Wave 2018 (IOWave18) tsunami exercise, oversee capacity assessment of tsunami preparedness, and pilot the implementation of a Tsunami Ready Programme¹ in the Indian Ocean. As part of its work plan, the ICG/IOTWMS held the 1st integrated intersessional meetings during 4–17 September 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia. These meetings were hosted by the Government of Indonesia through the Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) and facilitated by the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC), UNESCO-Jakarta Office and the ICG/IOTWMS Secretariat. On behalf of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, the Deputy Minister Mr. Agung Kuswandono inaugurated the meetings. The meetings were attended by more than 75 participants from 18 Member States (Australia, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Yemen), 7 invited experts and 3 IOC-UNESCO staff.

The meetings comprised of the following back-to-back events:

   • Task Team on Capacity Assessment of Tsunami Preparedness Intersessional Meeting
   • Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready (IOTR) Workshop
   • Working Group 1 on Tsunami Risk, Community Awareness and Preparedness Intersessional Meeting
   • Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Tsunami Warning and Emergency Response Regional Workshop
   • Working Group 2 on Tsunami Detection Warning and Dissemination Intersessional Meeting
   • IOWave18 Task Team Intersessional Meeting
   • Steering Group Intersessional Meeting

The SOP workshop assisted the National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWCs) and the Disaster Management Organisations (DMOs) of Member States to understand TSP products, develop integrated end-to-end SOPs for tsunami warning and emergency response, identify potential gaps and possible challenges for warning chains at the national/local levels and prepare for participation in the IOWave18 tsunami exercise.

All participating Member States in the IOTR workshop agreed that the Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready Programme and national recognition is beneficial for enhancing tsunami preparedness in their vulnerable communities, and noted several in-country initiatives that map well with the IOTR indicators. Guidelines for the IOTR Programme and a roadmap for pilot implementation in selected communities of interested Member States were finalised.

The meetings also resulted in finalising the intersessional work plans (2017-19) of the ICG/IOTWMS Working Groups and Task Teams, including implementation plans for Capacity Assessment of Tsunami Preparedness of the IOTWMS Member States and the IOWave18 exercise on 4-5 September 2018. Further details regarding the meetings can be found at www.ioc-tsunami.org/iotwms-integratedmeetings1.
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¹ A community performance-based programme that facilitates a structural and systematic approach in building community tsunami preparedness through an active collaboration of the public (community), community leaders, and local and national emergency management agencies.