Monday, January 17th, 2005
World Conference on Disaster Reduction Begins in Kobe
GDLN allows policy makers and academics across the region to actively participate in the conference
The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction begins tomorrow in Kobe, Japan, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the city ten years ago. Between 2,000 and 3,000 participants are expected to attend the five-day event which is being held at the Portopia Hotel and International Conference Center.
Senior government representatives will lead delegations from UN member countries, while the UN will be represented at a senior level by heads of agencies and programs. The timing and significance of the conference take on an increased and urgent meaning after the tsunami of December 26 last year.
The TDLC, with the collaboration of JICA-Net, will participate in the conference's Thematic Cluster 3 entitled Knowledge, Innovation and Education on January 19. This session is co-organized by UNESCO, Kyoto University's Graduate School of Global Environment Studies (KUGSGES), the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction (GADR), the Global Open Learning Forum on Risk Education (GOLFRE), the Disaster Reduction Alliance (DRA), and the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES). Knowledge, Innovation and Education focuses on the requirements for creating a culture of disaster resilience and on the mutual learning processes between people and institutions.
Knowledge, innovation and education are inter-related issues that are at their most effective when linked to community needs. Knowledge and behavioral changes at the individual, household, community and policy levels are the ultimate goals of this program. Consequently the presentations and panel will focus on four key areas of discussion: education; an increased knowledge base; information and public awareness; and community empowerment.
Yukio Yoshimura, World Bank Vice President and Special Representative for Japan, will act as a panelist for the theme's keynote session, and will speak on development learning and the role of IT in knowledge management. The GDLN will link participants in Kobe, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and Mr. Yoshimura will be inviting remarks from Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka, and also from other sites. The network will also be used to conduct a question and answer session, allowing policy makers and academics across the region to actively participate in the conference.
The following day in a separate session, Ryu Fukui, the TDLC's Partnership and Programs Manager, will speak on distance development learning and education, and will participate in a panel discussion with other educational experts. This session, entitled Education for Sustainable Development, will review the past decade in the field of education, sustainable development, disaster reduction and human security, and suggest future strategies for the next decade.
Based on the objectives established by the UN General Assembly, the expected outcomes of the conference will include:
Increased awareness, recognition, and political endorsement for implementing disaster risk reduction and mobilizing local and international resources
Clearer directions and priorities at all levels for implementing the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and to support the objectives of the Johannesburg Plan of implementation and the Millenium Development Goals
Adoption of a set of goals and policy measures to guide disaster risk reduction
Launching of specific programs and partnerships to support the implementation of ISRD
Visit this site for more news as the conference gets under way.
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