First steps to combat natural disasters

Themed “Creating Value through Strategic Partnerships”, the 2015 forum gathered key leaders in the business, humanitarian, and government sectors from across the Asia-Pacific region to explore how effective cross-sector partnerships can build community preparedness and benefit participants.

"Protecting lives is central to everything we do across countries in which we have presence, including Vietnam, and disaster preparedness is a key pillar of all our community investment initiatives. We believe the long-term sustainability of disaster preparedness hinges on collaboration between businesses, governments, NGOs and communities,” said executive director of Prudence Foundation Marc Fancy.

Earlier in March 2015, Prudence Foundation and Prudential Vietnam, in coordination with the Ministry of Education and the Save the Children Fund, launched a Disaster Risk Reduction project in the country. This three-year programme from 2015 to 2017 aims to increase the disaster preparedness and resilience of 6,000 vulnerable children and 30,000 community members in the disaster-affected areas of Haiphong city, Dien Bien and Tien Giang provinces.

According to the United Nations’ 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, Vietnam has suffered a total economic loss of $5.2 billion and 2.715 deaths a year in the period 2004-2015, mainly resulting from flood and storms.

“Vietnam is one of the five countries predicted to be the most affected by climate change. Currently, people throughout the country are victims to natural disasters, ranging from landslides and floods in the Northern areas, drought in the central and southern provinces, and even extreme heat waves in Hanoi – where we are standing,” said Doan Van Thai, secretary general of the Vietnam Red Cross Society.