The lessons learned from the Tsunami on Dec. 26 last year will impact the functioning of the international disaster response system for years to come, a UN official said in Hong Kong Thursday.

Delivering a keynote speech at a forum here, Margareta Wahlstrom, UN Special Coordinator for Humanitarian assistance to Tsunami-affected countries, said the international system for humanitarian response is "challenged collectively to an extent that we have possibly not been facing since the mid 1990s."

At the Hong Kong Forum of "Asia & East Africa: Earthquake and Tsunamis," which opened Thursday and will last three days, she defined six points as the practical and strategic challenges for the short to medium term.

The six points are as follows: avoid creating a gap between the relief/recovery and rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, understand clearly what reconstruction requires in the coordination mechanisms and the government's need, support the national leadership for the process from the outset, ensure that already marginalized communities do not become forgotten or even more marginalized, engage in the required cooperation and monitoring to ensure equity in assistance, and continue to develop and benefit from the multiple new partnerships in this operation.

Since the United Nations is today under some serious criticism and scrutiny in other regards, Wahlstrom said the humanitarian part of the United Nations will have this opportunity to strengthen public reporting mechanisms to ensure that "we are not only are, but also appear to be, transparent and making further efforts to ensure that information is available easily."

In order to answer the demands and expectations, the UN humanitarian services require a lot more development in the areas of common logistics, air services, emergency telecommunications, public information and civil military liaison services, information management, Wahlstrom said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2005)