A/RES/57/152 development plans of all vulnerable countries and communities, including, where appropriate, in plans relating to the transition from relief to development, and also affirms that within such preventive strategies, disaster preparedness and early warning systems must be further strengthened at the country and regional levels, inter alia, through better coordination among relevant United Nations bodies and cooperation with Governments of affected countries and regional and other relevant organizations with the aim of maximizing the effectiveness of natural disaster response and reducing the impact of natural disasters, particularly in developing countries; 8. Emphasizes the importance of enhanced international cooperation, including with the United Nations and regional organizations, to assist developing countries in their efforts to build capacities and to predict, prepare for and respond to natural disasters; 9. Stresses the need for partnership among Governments of the affected countries, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant humanitarian organizations and specialized companies to promote training to strengthen preparedness for and response to natural disasters; 10. Also stresses the need to promote the access to and transfer of technology related to early warning systems and to mitigation programmes to developing countries affected by natural disasters; 11. Encourages the further use of space-based and ground-based remotesensing technologies for the prevention, mitigation and management of natural disasters, where appropriate; 12. Also encourages in such operations the sharing of geographical data, including remotely sensed images and geographic information system and global positioning system data among Governments, space agencies and relevant international humanitarian organizations, as appropriate, and also notes in that context initiatives such as those undertaken by the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters and the Global Disaster Information Network; 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. Welcomes the role of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat as the focal point within the overall United Nations system for the promotion and coordination of disaster response among the United Nations humanitarian agencies and other humanitarian partners; 15. Also welcomes the establishment of the positions of regional disaster response advisers by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as well as the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme to establish regional disaster reduction adviser positions, and encourages the further development of these initiatives in a coordinated and complementary manner in order to assist developing countries in capacity-building for disaster prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response; 16. Encourages further cooperation between the United Nations system and regional organizations in order to increase the capacity of these organizations to respond to natural disasters; 3