Symposium on Telecommunications for Disaster Relief (TDR)

The Symposium on Telecommunications for Disaster Relief (TDR), was held in Islamabad, Pakistan from 18 to 20 April 2006. The Symposium has been organized by the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity and hosted by the Ministry of Information Technology of the Government of Pakistan and supported under by the Extra Budgetary Contribution of Japan.
The objectives of this Symposium were to bring governments, private sector, international organizations and other regional stakeholders together to share their experiences, to create awareness on the importance of telecommunication and ICT applications for disaster relief and to discuss matters on common strategies and coordination within the Asia-Pacific region. Other topics include Disaster Prevention and Recovery, Disaster Management Network Systems, Development of Warning Systems for the Asia-Pacific Region and real time situations in handling and management of the disaster.

The three day symposium was attended by 80 participants from APT Members. International bodies including UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, Merci Corps, and other Experts on Disaster Management and Relief efforts in the region. The symposium has recommended to establish a study group to develop and refine comprehensive framework for cooperation among APT member countries for sharing telecommunication resources to mitigate the effects of natural disasters.

Link to the Workshop Documents