A case study from the National Disaster Management Institute in the Republic of Korea

In the context of growing vulnerability to climatic hazards in Asia, the Republic of Korea’s (RoK) National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) hosted the Fourth Bi-annual Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in October 2010. The resulting Roadmap and Action Plan for the period to 2015 detailed a strategy for dealing with known and unknown naturerelated risks in the countries of Asia and the Pacific. As part of the RoK’s commitment to delivering this vision for a safer Asia, Korea's National Disaster Management Institute, a division of NEMA, has begun hosting international education and training programmes for governmental officials and civilians from other Asian countries. This article reports on a recent visit to the NDMI campus in Cheonan with details of the comprehensive training and education facilities offered by the centre and the wide variety of programmes, targeting both natural hazards and civil defence, which have been developed to cater for both governmental and civilian needs. The NDMI is a testament to RoK’s commitment to the Roadmap and Action Plan and to its resolve to improve not only institutional knowledge at the government level, but also community awareness and response capacity. The international programmes hosted by the Institute are currently funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) but this limits the quantity and scope of what can be offered. Recent interest from international donors in funding international education programmes has raised awareness of the potential resource the Institute could offer to the international community if greater priority is given to the disaster risk reduction agenda at the governmental and donor level.