A/RES/54/233 Page 3 8. Recalls the consideration of natural disasters contained in the report of the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,3 held in Vienna from 19 to 30 July 1999, and encourages further use of space-based technologies for the prevention, mitigation and management of natural disasters, noting in this regard, the establishment of the Global Disaster Information Network; 9. Takes note of the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations, adopted at Tampere, Finland, on 18 June 1998, and encourages States that have not signed the Convention to consider doing so; 10. Welcomes innovative efforts to link various phases of international assistance from relief to rehabilitation, such as the joint Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Children’s Fund and World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization Disaster Response and Recovery Mission undertaken in all countries affected by hurricane Mitch, and stresses the need to ensure adequate assessment of and follow-up to these approaches with a view to further developing and applying them in other disasters; 11. Encourages Governments, in particular through their disaster response agencies, relevant organizations of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations, to continue to cooperate appropriately with the Secretary-General and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator to maximize the effectiveness of the international response to natural disasters, based, inter alia, on humanitarian need, from relief to development; 12. Recalls, in this regard, its request to the Secretary-General to solicit the required input further to optimize and disseminate listings of organizations of civil protection and emergency response at all levels with updated inventories of available resources to help in natural disasters, as well as information, including handbooks, that guide the international cooperation in responding to natural disasters; 13. Stresses that particular international cooperation efforts should be undertaken to enhance and broaden further the utilization of national and local capacities and, where appropriate, regional and subregional capacities of developing countries for disaster preparedness and response, which may be made available in closer proximity to the site of a disaster, more efficiently and at lower cost; 14. Notes that the transition phase after natural disasters is often excessively long and characterized by a number of gaps, and that Governments, in cooperation with relief agencies, as appropriate, when planning for meeting immediate needs, should place these needs in the perspective of sustainable development whenever such an approach is possible; 15. Stresses the need to continue to provide adequate funds and to release funds quickly for natural disasters in order to contribute to a comprehensive recovery in the shortest time possible; 16. Also stresses, in this regard, that contributions for humanitarian assistance for natural disasters should be provided in a way that is not to the detriment of resources made available for international cooperation for development or complex humanitarian emergencies; 3 A/CONF.184/6. /...