ASEAN Standards and Certification for Experts in Disaster Management (ASCEND) Assessor Training in Vietnam

The ASEAN Standards and Certification for Experts in Disaster Management (ASCEND) Framework was endorsed by the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) in 2017 as a response to the need to reinforce existing regional arrangements for disaster relief and emergency response brought about by the increasing number and scale of disasters hitting the region.  As part of the implementation, the RDI as a consultant for this project, together with AHA Centre has planned a series of activities within the project to establish a pool of qualified ASCEND Assessors. This year’s implementation of the ASEAN Standards and Certification for Experts in Disaster Management (ASCEND) project focused on preparing the ASCEND Assessors through a series of capacity-building initiatives.

Last April 20-21, The ASCEND Assessors Training Curriculum Workshop was held virtually and attended by 17 participants from ASEAN Member States. This was followed by the first face to face training held last 27 June to 1 July 2022. The ASCEND Assessor Training organized by AHA Centre and  Vietnam Disaster Management Authority (VDMA) was held at Saigon Prince Hotel, Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam.  The main objective of the training was to enhance the capacity of the ASEAN disaster management professionals by capacitating ASCEND Assessors in each AMS in compliance with the ASCEND Standards. At the end of the training, the participants were able to obtain the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude that are essential in applying the duties and responsibilities of an ASCEND Assessor. The training was vital in ensuring that the ASEAN has qualified individuals who will serve as ASCEND assessors during the certification assessment process.

The training methods combined participatory and dialogical lectures with balanced competency assessment exercises. The materials used for the training were the standardized curriculum for ASCEND assessor training that has been reviewed during the Workshop on Training Curriculum for ASCEND Assessors in April 2022.  The training itself was attended by 27 participants from National Disaster Management Offices (NDMOs) of ASEAN Member States (AMS), except for NDMO from Myanmar who couldn’t attend the training, and additional participants from ASEAN Secretariat (2 participants) and AHA Centre (3 participants). The training was monitored by 6 observers (2 from ASEAN-ROK Programme Management Team – AKPMT, 3 from Korean National Fire Agency - KNFA, and 1 from Mission of ROK to ASEAN). Mrs. Tetty DS Arianto from Badan Nasional Sertifikasi Profesi (BNSP) Indonesia and Mr. Surono an external consultant from RDI  acted as the Master Assessors who were given the roles as Trainers. RDI as a consultant team acted as participant's facilitators, mostly assisting participants to be actively involved in the series of activities of the training. The delegates from RDI Team were represented by Dr. Jonatan A. Lassa as the Project Coordinator, Dr. Saut A. H. Sagala, Dr. Harijanto Tjahjono, and Ms. Ananda Prabu Dian A.

Through this training, the ASCEND Project Management Team and RDI have received beneficial and valuable feedback and input from all participants. In the future, the AHA Center team and RDI will review and update ASCEND documents along the way in accordance with the feedback and needs that emerged in the ASCEND Assessor training. AHA Centre will also continue to adjust the ASCEND Registration System, called the Certemy platform. For the continuation of ASCEND Phase II implementation, the Assessor’s Training will be followed by the Trial Simulation of the certification tentatively scheduled in October/ November 2022. After that, there will be an Evaluation Workshop to assess the overall training and simulation. Lastly, the ACDM decision will be elicited by the end of 2022.

Mrs. Tetty and Dr. Surono as trainers.

Dr Jonatan, Dr. Saut Sagala, and Dr. Harijanto from RDI