Singapore strengthens humanitarian assistance and disaster relief partnership with PDC

Singapore’s Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Coordination Centre (RHCC) and Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) have just announced a renewed agreement of their longtime cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief initiatives.

The announcement took place during PDC’s participation with Changi RHCC in a recent multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise known as Exercise Coordinated Response (Ex COORES) 2023. Ex COORES was held in Singapore between October 30 and November 2, 2023, with the active participation of 180 personnel from 26 militaries and 25 civilian organizations. The four-day event was co-organized by Changi RHCC, the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM), and the Disaster Management Committee, Ministry of National Defence, Lao PDR. PDC served as an observer to the overall exercise, representing the civil sector, and providing data from its DisasterAWARE platform into Changi RHCC’s OPERA application which supported Ex COORES 23.

The exercise scenario involved responding to a simulated typhoon resulting in severe secondary flooding and landslide impacts. Both primary and secondary hazard impacts required extensive response coordination for search and rescue and humanitarian assistance operations.  During the exercise, numerous requests for assistance were “injected” into the response scenario to trigger coordination of decision-making between various host governments, the Multinational Coordination Center, and civilian agency representatives.

Cooperation between PDC and Changi RHCC during Ex COORES was followed by a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that extends from their 2018 MOU on regional early warning and disaster response.

“We are pleased to announce the renewal of our partnership with PDC following years of successful collaboration on many important initiatives, including integration of PDC DisasterAWARE data into our OPERA v2.0 application as well as this week’s Ex COORES 23 multinational exercise.

Together, we remain committed to building regional and partner capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters in one of the highest risk and most hazard-prone regions of the world.”

—Director Changi RHCC, Colonel Fredie Tan

According to Changi RHCC Director Colonel Tan, the organization has been partnering with PDC over the last five years on advanced early warning, risk understanding, and capacity development with partners. “Through our renewed agreement we seek to build networks and linkages with stakeholders to enhance information sharing as well as build capacity for disaster relief. We also intend to continue joint training and exercises and increase the interoperability of multi-hazard early warning.”

“Our agreement with Changi RHCC is a regional force multiplier in building capacity because it allows us to leverage each other’s complementary resources and networks,” said Chris Chiesa, Deputy Executive Director of the Pacific Disaster Center.

Chiesa explained that during the next phase of PDC’s partnership with Changi RHCC, areas of focus will be on strengthening disaster risk reduction and response through advancements in early warning, risk assessments, technology innovations, disaster operations, and capacity building.

Changi RHCC was established in 2014 to establish operational ties with HADR agencies in the region and beyond, allowing for greater collaboration and enhanced disaster planning and response.

A technical exchange is planned for the first quarter of 2024 to help shape the next version of Changi RHCC’s OPERA application and achieve a higher level of interoperability between it and PDC’s DisasterAWARE platform.

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Learn more about Changi RHCC and PDC’s recent engagement and partnership.