Professor Butch Finley from APCSS during his presentation last night at Gadong Centrepoint.

This was just one key point made by Prof Butch Finley from the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific Centre for Strategic Studies (APCSS) during his presentation "Organising Ideas for Humanitarian Assistance/ Disaster Relief: Thinking Before The Storm" delivered at The Centrepoint Hotel in Gadong.

The professor also highlighted the importance of local communities' involvement in disaster management, as he said they were linked to both pre-disaster prevention and mitigation efforts right through to post-disaster recovery and sustainable activities in the disaster management lifecycle.

Raising local communities' awareness of the dangers they might be exposed to aims to provide more effective and efficient protection, the professor said.

He added that although formalised plans have been drafted and contingency plans have been incorporated into operational and tactical responses to disaster situations, it was found that local communities have provided several ideas tackling problem-solving and decision-making issues that are being introduced into "HA/DR thinking".

The presentation also touched on the notions of cornplexity, situational awareness, problem framing and social networking as part of changing how disaster assessments are made.

Before arriving in Brunei, Prof Finley and other members of the APCSS delivered similar presentations in Japan, and they will travel to Malaysia next, before returning to Hawaii.

Brunei's National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), in collaboration with the APCSS, organised the presentation, which gave participants the opportunity to further develop their knowledge of disaster management with the tools provided by the APCSS.

The event was also aimed at strengthening ties between APCSS alumni by providing a venue to discuss their work professionally.

Brunei's security authorities have taken part in many APCSS courses, including its Transnational Security Cooperation and Advanced Security Cooperation programmes as well as its Comprehensive Security Responses to Terrorism Course, Comprehensive Crisis Management and Asia-Pacific Orientation Course. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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