The Public Governance Programme of the OECD Korea Policy Centre, together with the OECD and Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), held the “Regional Dialogue: Enhancing Disaster Risk Management and Crisis Preparedness in Southeast Asia” on 10 September 2026 at the Amari Bangkok Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Regional Dialogue brought together 45 participants in total, including government officials from six countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Japan and the Republic of Korea), the OECD Secretariat, and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). It was the first meeting on disaster risk management held for the Southeast Asian region under the relevant OECD body.

The Dialogue consisted of four sessions: (1) strengthening the interface between national and local disaster management authorities; (2) raising public awareness of disaster risks; (3) applying disaster risk assessments at the local level; and (4) strengthening capacities and improving policy through the institutionalisation of lessons learned. Participating countries shared their disaster management systems and policy experiences and held in-depth discussions on common regional issues. In particular, the Republic of Korea sent experts from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) and the National Disaster Management Research Institute (NDMI) as speakers, who introduced Korea's advanced disaster management systems, including the National Disaster Management System (NDMS), to the region.

Through this Regional Dialogue, the OECD Korea Policy Centre established a foundation for policy cooperation on disaster risk management between the OECD and Southeast Asian countries, and it plans to continue cooperation programmes to strengthen disaster management capacity in the region.