TEHRAN -The fourth Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) expert group meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) opened in Tehran on Sunday and will wrap up tomorrow.

The four-day meeting has brought together all national government officials and experts responsible for DRR from member states, particularly representatives from regional and international institutions such as The Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC), Regional Education and Research Center on Earthquake Risk Management and Resilience for West and Central Asia (RCECWA), ECO Regional Center for Risk Management of Natural Disasters (ECO-RCRM), dolat.ir reported.

Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are the member states of the organization.

The main objective of the 4th meeting is to present reports and statements of the member states, international institutions, and the ECO secretariats on the implementation status of the ECO Regional Framework on DRR as well as the latest developments on DRR in the ECO Region.

The meeting also focuses on developing a landslide hazard zonation (LHZ) map of the ECO member states, a new plan to assess the science of late quaternary climate change in the regions of the ECO member states, a new plan to prepare flood hazard and risk maps in ECO member states, a new model of geo-environmental risk assessment map of mining areas in the region of ECO member states. They also discussed the 9th Ministerial Conference on DRR’s hosting by member states in 2024.

The third expert group meeting on DRR was virtually organized and hosted by Turkey in 2021.

Economic Cooperation Organization

The ECO is a successful and promising regional organization, and Iran, as one of the founding countries of the organization, has a serious interest in strengthening intra-regional cooperation and promoting the position of ECO as an effective regional mechanism for economic connectivity, Press TV reported.

The international position of the organization, established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey with the aim of promoting economic, technical, and cultural cooperation between the member countries, is growing.

The importance of the organization became more apparent when the United Nations approved in 1985 that ECO become an observer member of the United Nations, as did the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The ECO Region shelters more than 460 million inhabitants and expands over 8 million square kilometers of land, connecting the north to south, south, and east to the west, Asia to Europe, and Eurasia to the Arab World. Composed of some Caucasus, South, West, and Central Asian countries, ECO is one of the oldest intergovernmental organizations.

The founding and fundamental goal of the Organization is to create amenable and conducive conditions for the continued promotion of sustainable economic development in the region, aiming at joint welfare and well-being of the Member States.

The ECO stretched the fabric of its cooperative partnership in the early 1990s, welcoming the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as five Central Asian nations, including the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as its members.

The ECO Member States, bearing their shared cultural and historic affinities in mind, appear to be always ready, receptive, and forthcoming to complement each other, intensifying their collaboration with action and result-oriented motives to achieve the perceived target of greater connectivity and integration in the region.

MT/MG