The 6th Annual meeting of the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) 2008 was held at Godavari Village Resort, Kathmandu from November 3-5. The annual meeting was organized by ADRRN and hosted by National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) Nepal. It was jointly sponsored by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Regional Office for Asia Pacific and Australian Government AusAID.

The three day conference was attended by 31 participants from 16 countries. They underwent rigorous brainstorming for two-and-half days to chalk out future strategy of ADRRN to strengthen the network in the next three years. The meeting also aimed to promote coordination, experience sharing and collaboration among ADRRN members. The agenda of the meeting included presentation and extensive discussion on ADRRN joint projects and lesson learnt.

For the three days, the participants extensively engaged themselves in group discussions to share each others experience. The meeting was a platform to deliberate on the strategies and priority actions for fostering and facilitating network and collaboration at the regional and local level. It was also an opportunity to collectively shape the future of the network with a concrete strategic plan for ADRRN.
The annual meeting was also fruitful in drawing specific commitment from the participants on achieving future strategic objectives through implementation of high priority suggestions on six specific themes.
Field visit to various earthquake risk reduction sites in Kathmadu on the third and final day added to the first hand experience of local DRR activities to the participants. Deemed as the most successful annual meeting in ADRRN history, it saw active participation from the member representatives and equally supportive in shaping the future strategy for the network.