Day two of the conference started with a session, with three keynote speakers, which explored the future direction of disaster risk reduction research. The first speaker was the director UNESCO Jakarta office, Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. They highlighted the work done by UNESCO in DRR and its close adherence to the Sendai Framework. UNESCO provides support for DRR through its culture sector through training workshops, technical assistance in the ‘pre-disaster’ phase, emergency response support and awareness raising, with regards to protecting world heritage sites for example. With regards to their educational sector and DRR, their priorities are providing safe teaching facilities (i.e. disaster proof), ensuring education throughout post-disaster scenarios and supporting the implementation of DRR into educational curriculum.The next speaker was a distinguished technical advisor to the President at Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), they highlighted that investing in DDR can reduce the rebuilding phase by nearly 700 percent; and that most of the money that is invested in disasters currently is invested in the clearing up and rebuilding phase. They also stated that Japan invests roughly thirty-five percent of all global DDR research funding. The last speaker was the ambassador of Colombia to Japan, who spoke of Colombia’s recent experiences and methods of employing DRR policy throughout its government ministries. One recurring method used by governments to employ DRR policies was to have a DRR body within the government which could advise existing ministries/departments on how to adapt their own policies and funding to incorporate DRR activities into their policy outputs.
During the discussion period the session, one of our delegation asked the panel:“With more developed countries such as the United States and United Kingdom looking at cutting their aid budgets, to what extent do you think it is likely to affect the ability of NGOs and governments to build resilience within vulnerable countries; and is this going to put more stress on the NGO sector?”. The response given highlighted that within the United States is a vital support for the United Nations and that this is a cause of great concern within the sector. However, this is not to say that individual states cannot improve their economies and further expand their DRR budget. In fact, it was suggested that this would be more favourable than depending on foreign aid.
After the session, our delegation was given the opportunity to present a poster presentation to the other the delegations, see photos for the poster. It was a great opportunity for the society to build global networks, have people from many countries hear about our work and also to hear of their own projects and research which could be incorporated into the DDS. The importance of disaster education was a recurring theme throughout the conference and our discussions.
After this, we had a plenary session which was a summary of each of the four/five discussion groups sessions which ran the previous day. These sessions were ‘Hydrometerology related Risk, Earthquake, Volcano and Compound Risk, Geohazrd related (i.e. landslides/liquefaction) and social and human science related risk understandings. Whilst a summary of each discussion group is beyond the scope of this update, the overall points made at the end of all the discussion summaries were: a multi-hazard approach to understanding risk is needed, disaster education spans all these individual ‘risk categories’ and that the idea of a new DRR science may not be the answer, but more an inter-disciplinary approach blending the research would be better. The question of measuring the impact of DRR policies was raised again, and identified as an area of further enquiry.
Following lunch (sustainably sourced seafood curry, delicious!), the conference once again split into groups (3 this time) to ‘evaluate current research status and to identify the most important future research themes’. The 2 DDS delegates attended the ‘Enhancing Governance to Manage Disaster Risks’ session chaired by the acting head of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre’s (EC-JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit. The group was split again into 3 discussion groups, with the DDS delegation playing a key role in our group, by taking on both note-taking and facilitator roles. Peter also acted as rapporteur to the rest of the group to summarise our discussion for the rest of the group. See Day 3’s summary for the findings discussion summary…
At 6pm, we left the Kyoto University and headed back to Kyoto and our hotel. After a quick change, we walked back to Kyoto station, to meet Prof. Collins and 2 of the keynote speakers (the vice chair of the UNISDR Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG), the acting head of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre’s (EC-JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit) for dinner. We visited a Japanese restaurant underneath Kyoto tower. The food was amazing (see some pictures below) and the conversation was fascinating with such experienced people around, although inevitably the conversation settled on the inevitable - BREXIT. After three hours, we left and had a quick drink before heading back to the hotel and bed, only 1 day left already!!
Peter McGowran and Mark Ashley Parry
After the session, our delegation was given the opportunity to present a poster presentation to the other the delegations, see photos for the poster. It was a great opportunity for the society to build global networks, have people from many countries hear about our work and also to hear of their own projects and research which could be incorporated into the DDS. The importance of disaster education was a recurring theme throughout the conference and our discussions.
After this, we had a plenary session which was a summary of each of the four/five discussion groups sessions which ran the previous day. These sessions were ‘Hydrometerology related Risk, Earthquake, Volcano and Compound Risk, Geohazrd related (i.e. landslides/liquefaction) and social and human science related risk understandings. Whilst a summary of each discussion group is beyond the scope of this update, the overall points made at the end of all the discussion summaries were: a multi-hazard approach to understanding risk is needed, disaster education spans all these individual ‘risk categories’ and that the idea of a new DRR science may not be the answer, but more an inter-disciplinary approach blending the research would be better. The question of measuring the impact of DRR policies was raised again, and identified as an area of further enquiry.
Following lunch (sustainably sourced seafood curry, delicious!), the conference once again split into groups (3 this time) to ‘evaluate current research status and to identify the most important future research themes’. The 2 DDS delegates attended the ‘Enhancing Governance to Manage Disaster Risks’ session chaired by the acting head of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre’s (EC-JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit. The group was split again into 3 discussion groups, with the DDS delegation playing a key role in our group, by taking on both note-taking and facilitator roles. Peter also acted as rapporteur to the rest of the group to summarise our discussion for the rest of the group. See Day 3’s summary for the findings discussion summary…
At 6pm, we left the Kyoto University and headed back to Kyoto and our hotel. After a quick change, we walked back to Kyoto station, to meet Prof. Collins and 2 of the keynote speakers (the vice chair of the UNISDR Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG), the acting head of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre’s (EC-JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit) for dinner. We visited a Japanese restaurant underneath Kyoto tower. The food was amazing (see some pictures below) and the conversation was fascinating with such experienced people around, although inevitably the conversation settled on the inevitable - BREXIT. After three hours, we left and had a quick drink before heading back to the hotel and bed, only 1 day left already!!
Peter McGowran and Mark Ashley Parry