Please be informed of the following shelter coordination related events taking place in Asia in the coming weeks:
1. Regional Emergency Shelter Cluster Meeting, Bangkok
On 31st October IFRC are convening a Regional Emergency Shelter Cluster meeting in Bangkok to review the shelter response and coordination issues in recent natural disasters in South and South East Asia.
Participants of the shelter clusters in Myanmar (including the supporting Bangkok shelter cluster) and Bangladesh are invited, along with shelter agencies and other cluster representatives who are based in Bangkok or the region and able to attend.
The draft agenda will focus on issues flagged by country level cluster participants, although further suggestions are welcomed from potential meeting participants.
The aim of the meeting is to identify shelter response and coordination issues that need to be addressed at a regional or national levels by participating cluster agencies, and issues that should be addressed at the global level. Along with feedback from other country level clusters, in both post-conflict and post natural disaster contexts, this will usefully inform the focus of global Emergency Shelter Cluster activities in 2009.
Please inform me (miguel...@ifrc.org) if you are interested in attending this meeting.
If you have Bangkok or South East Asia based colleagues who would be interested and potentially available to participate in this meeting, please advise them of this event and make them aware that they will be receiving separate notification of this event.
2. UN Habitat+IFRC Workshop on sustainable relief and reconstruction, Bangkok 30th October Please also note that on 30th October, UN Habitat and IFRC will be convening a one day workshop on sustainable relief and reconstruction entitled "Rethinking Emergencies". This workshop will also take place at the Amari Watergate. This workshop will address a number of key themes that impact on the sustainability of shelter and settlement post-disaster responses, including the approach to shelter, supporting infrastructure, land and planning, governance and coordination. The session on coordination will be jointly facilitated by IFRC and OCHA, and will address the issue of coordination beyond the emergency phase and support for established housing and planning coordination processes.
One of the outputs of this workshop will be to draft an issues paper which will be tabled at the World Urban Forum taking place in Nanjing, China from 3rd-7th November.
If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please contact Monique Iglebaek (Monique.Iglebaek@unhabitat. org) with a brief summary of your specific area of interest.