Intersessional Meeting of the ICG/IOTWMS Working Group 1 on Tsunami Risk, Community Awareness and Preparedness

The intersessional meeting of the ICG/IOTWMS Working Group 1 (WG1) on tsunami risk, community awareness and preparedness was held in Bandung, Indonesia on 7-8 December 2016.  This meeting was hosted by the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) at the Grand Tjokro Hotel.  In total fourteen Member State representatives from eleven countries including Australia, Comoros, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Mauritius, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles and Timor Leste, one RIMES representative, one GIZ representatives and four UNESCO-IOC associates participated in this meeting. 

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Participants and Trainers of the Workshop on Lessons Learnt from Community Exercise of IOWave16, 5-6 December 2016, and Intersessional Working Group 1 Meeting on Tsunami Risk, Community Awareness and Preparedness, 7-8 December 2016, Bandung, Indonesia.

The WG1 meeting had a full agenda, which included reports on achievements and a review of the workplan.  WG1 will take several recommendations forward to the ICG/IOTWMS-XI, Kuala Lumpur, 18-20 April 2017.  These include, 

1.  Conducting a baseline assessment survey on each Member State's tsunami preparedness

2.  Conducting integrated capacity development workshops

3.  Implementing Tsunami Ready in the Indian Ocean region

4.  Enhancing community participation in future IOWave exercises

5. Aligning activities with World Tsunami Awareness Day to increase community awareness and preparedness

6. Setting up of inter-sessional task team for updating the questionnaires for baseline assessments, future IOWave exercises and ICG member-state national reports and conducting the baseline assessment

Furthermore, WG1 will investigate collaborative opportunities with other organisations (e.g. UNESCAP, UNISDR, RIMES, GIZ) to implement tsunami preparedness initiatives in the Indian Ocean region.

The WG1 meeting was held back-to-back with the Workshop on Lessons Learnt from Community Exercise of Indian Ocean Wave 2016 (IOWave16), also in Bandung on 5-6 December 2016.  This workshop was organized by the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC) and hosted by ITB with funding from UNESCAP and UNESCO-IOC.  In total ~60,000 people from 12 countries participated in community evacuations during IOWave16.  This marked a transition from what primarily used to be an upstream technical exercise to a more comprehensive end-to-end exercise.  The workshop provided a platform for Member States to share their experiences in IOWave16 and came up with specific recommendations towards enhancement of community participation in future IOWave exercises.