Friday, August 27th, 2004

GDLN Hosts Pilot Program on Community-Based Disaster Management

The Global Development Learning Network connected sites in Delhi, Hanoi, United Nations University, and the Tokyo Development Learning Center today for the first pilot program of Distance Learning on Disaster and Environment Management organised by Kyoto University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), the GDLN, and the Global Open Learning Forum on Risk Education (GOLFRE).

The event follows the Partnership in Community-Based Disaster Management (CBDM) conference held August 24 to 26 in Delhi, India, and looks ahead to the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) organised by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and hosted by the government of Japan in Kobe from 18 to 22 January 2005.

One of the major aims of the pilot countries was to explore the viability of distance learning-based CBDM programs with a longer-term view towards developing effective and sustainable community initiatives which, with the support of the GDLN's delivery mechanisms, are widely applicable throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Representatives of almost 30 organisations were present for the conference which ran for two and a half hours. At the TDLC were Takayuki Nakamura, Director of the Office of Disaster Reduction Research at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Masayuki Kitamoto, Executive Director of the Asian Disaster Reduction Center, and Shinji Matsuka, Deputy Director for Disaster Preparedness, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. The conference was chaired in Delhi by Rajib Shaw, Associate Professor from Kyoto University's Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies.

Introducing the network and providing an overview of its wide-reaching potential was Ryu Fukui, the TDLC's Partnership and Programs Manager. Yukio Yoshimura, Vice-President and Special Representative, Japan, of the World Bank welcomed participants to the network for the first time in his welcoming remarks.

The pilot program provided participants with first-hand experience of the distance learning and knowledge sharing mechanisms of the GDLN, disseminated output from the Partnerships in CBDM conference, and allowed delegates from India, Vietnam, and Japan to present initial strategies for sustainable community initiatives for environment and disaster management.

Delegates provided updates on CBDM initiatives in their countries, and spoke of the need for active risk education. Also emphasised was the need to gather local knowledge and wisdom, synthesise this with academic research and government and organisational activity, and then disseminate this combined knowledge back into communities.

Distance learning and knowledge sharing methods across the GDLN can play an important role in developing a strong CBDM platform of broad preparedness and comprehensive response. Dr. Srikantha Herath from UNU provided an impressive display of data modelling in his presentation, streaming animated statistical analyses real-time across the network to participating sites.

After the conference, participants in Tokyo spoke of the great potential of the GDLN in enabling such conferences, and the ability of the network to provide a preparatory platform ahead of major conferences such as WCDR-Kobe was well demonstrated.

The response from the other pilot countries was equally encouraging. Eighty-five percent of participants had not used such distance learning methods previously, and interest in leveraging the power of the network to share experiences and form communities of practice was unanimous.

The GDLN looks forward to playing a strong enabling role in disaster preparedness and management throughout the region and around the world.

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