This document highlights the mitigation programs of various governments around the world in order to present strategies and best practices in the field of earthquake risk management. Its principle aim is to provide policy makers throughout East Asia and the Pacific information to build safer, more resilient communities, with a particular emphasis on strengthening critical public infrastructures. The author begins by providing a background on recent earthquakes to hit East Asia within the past 20 years. The level of damage caused by what were historically moderate earthquakes points to the general lack of appropriate earthquake resistant seismic design in this region. The document then covers the development of the earthquake engineering and risk reduction profession as it emerged in California after the major earthquakes in San Francisco, California in 1906 and 1933. It highlights how the destruction of schools in the 1930s and hospitals in the 1970s have led the legislature of the state to pass laws requiring stricter earthquake designs for both. Eventually, higher standards were applied to facilities and infrastructure that play essential roles in emergency responses. The next section of the document presents an action plan for earthquake risk management with strategies for each key sector. The three phases of this process include risk audits of specific sectors consisting of earthquake scenario studies gauging the expected effects of major earthquakes, cost-benefit analysis for each sector, and implementation through strengthening and renovation of structures. The final section of the document presents the Istanbul Seismic Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Program (ISMEP) set up after the devastating 1999 earthquakes in Turkey as an example of a successful and on-going earthquake risk management program. A central concept throughout the document is the role that each major earthquake has in teaching us new lessons, such as where earthquakes occur, which type of structural inadequacies exist, what innovations in engineering and construction are not in the current codes, what non-structural details are not being considered. Building codes should be evolutionary and thus updated constantly. Engineering and construction training and licensing also need to be upgraded with changing knowledge. Older structures should be strengthened using experience gained by other countries.