ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve
ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease posed by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment whereas elders and those with underlying diseases such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, and cancer are more likely to develop to a serious illness. By today, there are more than a million cases around the world infected, including ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) member countries. Besides, there are currently no specific vaccines for COVID-19.
The ASEAN region has occasionally experienced a long-lasting food insecurity issues that pose a critical threat to livelihood and well-being of its citizens. To make the matters worse, during the years 2007 and 2008, the ASEAN Member States (AMS) had witnessed a social and economic impact of the world food price crisis, in which the price of staple foods was unprecedentedly increased due to several important factors such as rising fuel price and changes in climate pattern. From these reasons, the AMS realised that, in order to address the challenge, systematic policy framework along with work plan that prioritised on the accurate and inclusive agricultural data, sustainable food commodity production and trade, and timely relief mechanism of food supply in times of emergency were needed to be developed. Hence, the 14th ASEAN Summit held in 2009, pledging to embrace food security as a permanent and high policy priority, adopted the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework and Strategic Plan of Action – Food Security (SPA – FS) to be used during 2009-2013.
Earlier, the APTERR Secretariat arranged a field trip for the APTERR staff to visit the Satellite Warehouse under the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN (DELSA) located at the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Regional Office No.16 in Chainat province. The field study provided the APTERR staff with a concrete understanding on the DELSA mechanism and utilisation of the satellite warehouse during the emergency occurrence. Also, I think it would be an opportunity for the APTERR Secretariat to enhance cooperation with relevant agencies for humanitarian assistance and food security in the future, such as the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre).
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