UN humanitarian chief lauds Chinese disaster expertise and seeks expanded partnership

(Beijing/New York, 22 April 2009): United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes today concluded his two-day mission to China. During the visit, he lauded China's increasing engagement in humanitarian affairs, while urging more involvement on the multilateral side, and held fruitful dialogue on global issues of common concern including the financial crisis, the food crisis, climate change, and their implications for humanitarian needs and response.

In the course of his visit, he met with Mr. Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of the State Council, Mr. Chen Demin, Minister of Commerce, Mr. Li Liguo, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, Mr. Chen Jianmin, Director of the China Earthquake Administration, and Madame Jiang Yiman, Executive Vice President of the Red Cross Society of China.

As the first anniversary of the massive Wenchuan earthquake approaches, Mr. Holmes was briefed on the continuing recovery and reconstruction efforts. He expressed his renewed sympathies to the Government and the people of China on the tragedy of the earthquake and complimented China's outstanding relief operation.

In discussions with the Vice-Premier, the Minister of Commerce and the Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, Mr. Holmes recognised China's outstanding expertise in disaster preparedness and response. There was agreement on the vital importance of disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness, not least in the context of climate change, and on the desire of China and the UN to reinforce further their cooperation in these areas. Mr. Holmes encouraged the Chinese Government to intensify its role in the multilateral humanitarian system, given all it had to contribute, and in regional cooperation and capacity-building efforts.

In his meeting with the Director of the China Earthquake Administration, Mr. Holmes recognized the strong relationship that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has with the Administration. It was agreed to continue and strengthen cooperation, including sharing of lessons from the Wenchuan earthquake. Mr. Holmes visited the Administration's state of the art China National Training Base for Urban Search and Rescue, where he was able to see the world class facilities for himself. Noting that the centre has already provided training to Vietnam, Mr. Holmes encouraged it to continue to share its valuable expertise with the wider international community, and especially with developing countries.

On his final day in Beijing, Mr. Holmes addressed participants from 45 countries at the closing ceremony of the International Conference on Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction. He underscored that "the poor, especially poor women, suffer most from the impact of disasters, due both to their greater vulnerability and to their lesser capacity to address the disaster risks that they live with." He concluded that "Globally, we must see a wider movement towards putting more emphasis on disaster prevention, risk reduction and preparedness, and less on response after the disaster happens; and more emphasis on national and regional capacity building and less on international capacity. These are win-win approaches to addressing crosscutting humanitarian and developmental issues. But talk is never enough. We need action. And we need it rapidly and globally," he concluded.

For further information, please call: OCHA-New York: Stephanie Bunker, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1917 892 1679, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org; John Nyaga,+ 1 917 367 9262, mobile +1 917 318 8917, nyagaj@un.org; OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs,+41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int