ITU has traditionally worked on the disaster communication dimension, and the recent Tsunami disaster that hit South-East Asia on 26 December 2004 has brought the significance of that work into evidence.

ITU-D Sector engagement in development support for disaster communications includes, inter alia: a) partnership for direct assistance to the disaster-prone countries with technical assistance and support for operational costs; b) deployment of donated satellite phones in disaster-stricken areas; c) Handbook on Emergency Telecommunications; d) the Tampere Convention has been come into effect on 8 January 2005 following its ratification by 30 states; and e) projects on Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Telecommunication Infrastructure in Earthquake/Tsunami-hit Areas.

ITU-R has also produced important results as regards this area, inter alia: the GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System); definition of reserved spectrum for emergency communications with Resolution 646 (WRC-03); ITU-R Recommendations on global circulation of equipment (M.1637, M.1579); draft ITU-R M.2033 on the needs of future systems for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR); and M.1042-2 on disaster communications in the amateur and amateur-satellite services.

ITU-T for its part has produced, among others, Recommendations that are related to preferential schemes for the PSTN (E.106 and various changes to Q-Series Recommendation) and in IP-based systems (H.460.4 and H.460.14 in H.323 systems and J.260 in IP-Cablecom), Y.1271 on a framework for TDR over for circuit- and packet-switched networks, and M.3350 on TMN of provisioning of TDR. ITU-T has also established a Partnership Coordination Panel on Telecommunications for Disaster Relief (PCP-TDR) that has representatives of different ITU Study Groups, other SDOs, intergovernmental agencies and relief organizations, and aims at providing a channel for users and "standardizers" to exchange views and experiences on TDR, to support standardization activities. A specific numbering resource has in principle been defined for TDR applications under the auspices of the UN.

At the recent TSAG meeting held 14-18 March 2005, TSAG D.9 proposed that more technical standards could be created in support of Telecommunications for Disaster Relief (TDR) and Early Warning (EW). This was also reinforced in the report of the Joint APT/ITU meeting on the role of ICT for disaster reduction held in Bangkok on 28 February 2005 (TSAG TD/37).

After discussions, WP 2/TSAG endorsed the following:

• SG 2 to coordinate this work
• to encourage all ITU-T Study Groups to increase their activities in the definition of Recommendations and other materials (e.g. Handbooks) for Telecommunications for Disaster Relief and Early Warning according to their mandate; and
• the establishment of an ITU-T Action Plan for Telecommunications for Disaster Relief and Early Warning that should also be shared with and enhanced by the ITU-T Study Groups.