Opening the 5^th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction on October 29, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, in his opening address said that disaster reduction was now the country’s top priority. Noting that Indonesia is situated in a geographic region prone to natural disasters, he said, “we have found that natural disasters in all forms—tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions—have been the greatest threats to our national security and public well-being. They have caused more damage to property and citizens’ lives than any other factors.”

The president also talked at length about the steps that the Indonesian government has taken in the past few years to both implement the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, and to devise specific Indonesian steps to implement a National Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction. (DRR) The government has established a National Agency for Disaster Management and initiated forums and platforms at the regional and local levels.

Noting that it is always local government and locals themselves that have to “first tackle the challenges in the aftermath of any disaster," the president identified six areas whereby DRR can and should be strengthened at the local level: Strengthening local disaster resilience capacity; increased participation of multi-stakeholders; developing human and technical capacity at the local level;  sufficient financing to achieve a local capacity; improved coherence between local and national levels; and finally, the integration of small-scale DRR and climate change adaptation initiatives into local development processes.