Peter McGowran and Mark Ashley Parry (22nd March 2017)
Day 1
Good afternoon, (though its actually 1:45am here), please see our update from day 1 below and some photos (including a green KitKat).After an interesting experience at the breakfast buffet bar (pickled plums are best avoided apparently), we made our way with Prof. Collins to Kyoto station to catch the train to Uji just outside the city, where the Disaster Research Prevention Institute of Kyoto University is located, where the Global Alliance for Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) 3rd Summit would be held.
Following the registrations, the approximately 200 delegates from over 60 countries piled into the auditorium for the Opening Ceremony, where the Vice-Governor of Kyoto University, the vice-president of Kyoto prefecture, the Major of Uji city and the GADRI secretariat welcomed all the delegates. A group photo was also taken! The theme of the conference is ‘Expanding the Platform for Bridging Science and Policy making’
The first session allowed for representatives from some of the worlds largest international DRR institutions to give their opinion on how DRR research is influencing policy, and where collaboration could be further developed. We heard from the director of the Japanese cabinet office for Disaster Risk Management, the senior advisor to UNISDR, the vice chair of the UNISDR Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) and a special representative of the World Bank. A key theme which emerged was the need for national governments to mainstream DRR research themes into policy to reduce disaster risk and promote sustainable development. The Japanese structure for this provides an effective example, though it was stressed there is no one-size fits all approach.
Lunch was excellent if you are taking a liking to Japanese cuisine, as you ended up with 2 helpings of everything! See the photo below of the delicious vegetarian lunch.
After lunch and an interesting conversation with a representative with the Deputy Head of the Disaster Risk Management of Unity of the European Commission Joint Research Centre about Brexit, 4 GADRI members presented findings and stories from their varied DRR pursuits, from researching ‘Natechs’ to the ‘Bosai’ conference, the Japansese word for DRR activities (kind of). The chair of the session was our very own Prof. Andrew Collins.
After a coffee/looking at poster break for an hour, the conference was split into 4 groups to discusses current research status and important future research themes in the categories of Hydrological and metrological, earthquake volcano and compound disasters, Geohazard and Social/Human Science related Disaster Risk. The latter perhaps overrepresented by Northumbria as both DDS delegates as well as Prof Collins (chair) were in attendance. The group was split into 4 again to discuss present and future research themes of Social/Human Science related disaster risk research. Each group of 4 then fed back their discussion findings to the 3 other groups through 1 spokesperson. 1 of which was Peter! The main findings agreed by all 4 groups were that Social/Human Science related disaster research has successfully changed the landscape and framework of disaster research. However, it was also agreed it was the weakest of the 4 overall categories in terms of influencing policy makers. Other key themes for the future will be the move from trans/multi-disciplinary research towards inter-disciplinary research, increasingly synchronised research objectives and the need for increased engagement with civil society. It was agreed there are great ideas there which need to be put into practice and/or expanded.
This marked the end of the ‘serious’ part of the day, leaving only the Welcome Reception to be completed. There was plenty of tasty buffet food and drinks, though there was a general consensus among the conference goers that with this being night 1 of 3, it wasn’t going to be a long night.
The DDS delegates caught the train back to Kyoto after about 90 minutes of the reception and found an English pub completely by accident, where the one who missed out on lunch could eat some fish and chips.
Day 2
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!!
Day 3
The last day of the conference was the first rainy day of the trip, with the weather almost identical to a cold rainy Newcastle. The day promised to be a good one though, with some interesting talks and discussions followed by a cultural visit and of course the banquet later that evening.
The first session of the day was named ‘Sharing information of Research Institutes’. The first keynote of the day was delivered by the acting head of the European Commission, Joint Research Centre’s (EC-JRC) Disaster Risk Management Unit, who’s keynote presentation was called ‘Science for Policy: From knowledge production to knowledge management’. The presentation was based on the forthcoming publication ‘Science for Disaster Risk Management’ written by the ‘Disaster Risk Knowledge Centre’, which will be released in May at the UNISDR conference in Cancun. The talk was focussed on the ‘science-policy interface’ and advocated for ‘knowledge management’, to allow for knowledge to be collated and understood in detail, so it could be applied to specific policy goals. The 2nd keynote was delivered by a senior advisor to the Sri Lankan ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, it was called ‘Knowledge to Sustainable Practices: International Network for Transdisciplinary Education (INATE) Approach. The INATE approach links post-graduate courses closely with sustainable construction and ‘future city’ development projects. Arguing also that sustainability will only be brought about through sustainable practices. The final keynote was delivered by the director of the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM). The presentation was titled ‘Prescription for the Reduction of the Changing Disaster Risks of Water-Related Disasters. The talk was primarily showcasing the excellent scientific work predicting water hazards in Asia and North Africa, and the ‘quantification of uncertainty’.
Immediately after some questions and discussion on the keynotes, the next session, presenting findings from the previous day’s discussions on ‘Evaluating Current Research Status and Identifying Most Important Research Themes’, began. The 3 presentations (in order) were on Governance, DRR for resilience and the ‘Build Back Better’ (BBB) concept. The first session, the one attended by the DDS, highlighted the question of measuring the impact of policy on science and the need for research on the ‘science-policy’ interface itself, having argued that so far that governance focussed DRR activities have established policy frameworks, agencies to monitor and implement these frameworks and researched DRR engagement at a local scale. The 2nd session highlighted the difficulty in the multiplicity of the word ‘resilience’, though it was pointed out by an audience member that this multiplicity may not be such a bad thing given the multiplicity of the causes of disaster. The 3rd session explored the concept of BBB, and argued that the ability to BBB is dependent on the ‘resilience’ of the society ‘pre-disaster’, though highlighted the need for learning in post-disaster scenarios. The overall discussion on the 3 talks lead to the idea being proposed of DRR being ‘a new subject area’, the development of new areas of study within DRR such as the science policy interface and the need for a shift from ‘knowledge production’ to ‘knowledge management’.
After a coffee break, the conference reconvened to work together on forming GADRI’s future endeavours by editing the document on the ‘final outcomes’ of the conference, which was followed by some ‘closing remarks’ to thank all those who helped the conference to be a success.
We the visited the Byodoin temple (a UNESCO world heritage site) and headed back into Kyoto for the banquet, where we saw some geisha perform, ate some amazing Japanese food and drank plenty of sake from wooden boxes (which improves the taste)! After a few drinks with a fellow young researcher from Mexico, we headed back to the hotel to rest after an amazing 3 days at the 3rd GADRI Summit.
Northumbria Disaster and Development Society 