Search

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as one of the severe and important health disasters during recent times. The impacts of the COVID-19 have spanned across the globe and rightly qualify to be a transboundary disaster. When looked through the lens of transboundary risks, COVID-19 is not the first of its kind. Health and non-health transboundary risks are on the rise during recent years due to the integration at the regional and global scales. The paper argues that, despite the growth in the number of transboundary risks, the risk management systems at the national and international levels are largely oblivious of such risks and hence suitable solutions could not be developed. The chapter presents various past experiences of transboundary disasters, their impacts, and important lessons related to risk reduction. It highlights the need for recognition of transboundary risks and put in place an integrated risk reduction framework from international to the national and local levels and across multiple sectors, which entails building the capacity of institutions and revamping information and decision support systems. The chapter further argues that countries such as India and Japan have the potential to lead the formulation and implementation of such a risk reduction framework that can effectively address transboundary risks given their emerging role in the Asia region and beyond.

The frequent occurrence of disasters worldwide has caused massive loss of human lives and resources in the recent years and has amplified the severity in terms of lost output and job loss. In view of the escalation of risks across the affected countries, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the 2030 Agenda have stressed upon the importance of the risk-informed development. A number of countries in Asia and Africa have faced floods, tsunamis, droughts, earthquakes, etc., in the past and continue to remain prone to high-risk disasters. In that context, this paper analyzes the risks associated with disasters in the AAGC region and identifies the possible areas of collaboration among India, Japan, and other countries in Asia and Africa. It also highlights the experiences of India and Japan in disaster management which can be adapted in the African context. The scope of cooperation in AAGC could broadly cover the disaster risk information and climate services, strengthening data and statistical analysis of disaster-related information, risk-informed urban development, capacity building, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and knowledge management and information sharing.