The Strategic Guidance is designed to provide high level guidance for both civil and military actors in the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief arena.

The strategic guidance on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief is not intended to replace or compete with other regional or international documents. It provides a common point of reference for ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) members. The document has been developed by members of the ARF for the greater good of the ARF community.

Strategic Guidance on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief: intended for who?

The ARF Strategic Guidance on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) is intended to promote a common understanding of civil-military cooperation and coordination procedures for improving interoperability and cooperation between ARF participants, and so reduce their response time in disaster relief. The Strategic Guidance acknowledges the primacy of sovereignty and is legally non-binding. It focuses on emergency response activity and is not intended to apply to rehabilitation and reconstruction activity.

Existing Regional Documents on HADR.

The ARF HADR Strategic Guidance is also intended to be used in harmony with other national and international HADR documents, guidelines and procedures, such as:

• ARF General Guidelines for Disaster Relief Cooperation (Annex A to chapter 3)

• ASEAN Standard Operating Procedures for Regional Standby Arrangements and Coordination of Joint Disaster Relief and Emergency Response Operations (SASOP)

• ARF Work Plan for Disaster Relief 2009-2011 Version 5.0. as adopted by the 16th ARF

• Asia Pacific Conference on Military Assistance to Disaster Relief Operations Guidelines.

A summary of the ASEAN Charter and other ASEAN declarations and agreements is contained in annex A to this chapter. The Strategic Guidance will be continually improved on the basis of the needs of the ARF through incorporation of lessons learnt and other forms of validation. This document may be reviewed when necessary at the ARF Inter-Sessional Meeting on Disaster Relief will be responsible for annual review of the document.