ADRCOnlineDRRSeminarSeries
15 June 2021(Tue.)
18:00 - 19:30

First Seminar[Japan Time, UTC+9]

Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction for a Resilient Society
The discussions of the first seminar focused on "Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction for a Resilient
Society" to offer insights that contribute to governments and stakeholders’ efforts in implementing theSendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, especially Priority Three: Investing in Disaster Risk
Reduction for Resilience.

Objectives
1) Share recent knowledge on risk informed investment from analytical, programming, and empiricalviews that member states can further adopt to fundamentally reduce disaster damages and economiclosses.
2) Provide an overview of the key components for achieving a resilient society through investing indisaster risk reduction from the following viewpoints:- Why do we need to invest in disaster risk reduction?
- What have we achieved and what remains to be done?
- What are the crucial points for building a resilient society?

Dr. Jun Rentschler

Senior Economist
The World Bank,Washington, D.C., USA

Mr. Ronald JacksonProf. NISHIKAWA Satoru

Mr. NAKAGAWA Masaaki

HeadDRR and Recovery,
UNDP-Geneva,Switzerland

Professor
Disaster Mitigation ResearchCenter Nagoya University,Japan

Executive Director
Asian Disaster Reduction
Center, Kobe, JapanRegister

http://bit.ly/adrcseminar1

YouTubehttps://youtu.be/CFAvt0RinKA

https://acdr.adrc.asia/home/2021Seminar

ADRC Online DRR Seminar Secretariat
drr2021seminar@adrc.asia

ADRC Online
DRR Seminar
SeriesFirst Seminar

Agenda
18：00

18：05

18：20

18：35：50
19：25
18

Opening

Analytical Perspective
Dr. Jun Rentschler, Senior Economist at the World Bank,
Washington, D.C., USA

Programming Perspective
Mr. Ronald Jackson, Head, DRR and Recovery, UNDP - Geneva,
Switzerland

Empirical Perspective
Prof. NISHIKAWA Satoru, Professor, Disaster Mitigation ResearchCenter Nagoya University, JapanDiscussions
Wrap-up and Closing
Mr. NAKAGAWA Masaaki, Executive Director, Asian DisasterReduction Center, Kobe, Japan(Moderator)

ADRC Online
DRR Seminar
SeriesFirst Seminar

Summary
The first seminar, held on 15 June 2021, adopted the theme of Investing in Disaster Risk for a
Resilient Society. Three speakers shared various perspectives with more than 300 participantsfrom 20 countries.
Dr. Jun Rentschler, Senior Economist at the World Bank, said that "investing in resilience issound, profitable, and urgent." He supported this claim with evidence-based case studies andstatistics showing that every $1 invested in infrastructure resilience results in $4 in net benefit.
He also showed the challenges experienced by lifeline infrastructures, and pointed to theurgency of further investing in resilience. He argued that delaying such action is causing an
estimated loss of $100 billion in one year.
Mr. Ronald Jackson, Head of DRR and Recovery for Building Resilience Team at UNDPGeneva, presented UNDP's holistic perspective on building resilience known as "SignatureSolutions." This implements six cross-cutting approaches to development: poverty, governance,resilience, environment, energy, and gender. Mr. Jackson cited examples of UNDP's disasterrisk mitigation programs in Pakistan (water conservation), Belize (gender and livelihoods),
Ukraine (community-based disaster risk mitigation), Iran (climate change adaptation planning),
and Rwanda (awareness raising) where Signature Solutions have been implemented.
Prof. NISHIKAWA Satoru at the Disaster Mitigation Research Center of Nagoya University
stressed the importance of "pre-disaster" actions or investments in DRR based on the outcomesof empirical studies and lessons from past disasters in Japan. He said that after World War 2,
Japan was in ashes and infrastructure recovery was impeded and even further damaged by theimpacts of typhoons. In order to prevent future typhoon damage, Japan invested in flood control
using funds borrowed from the World Bank. Since then, Japan has strengthened investments inDRR by regularly evaluating what went wrong and went right withpre-disaster countermeasures.
Mr. NAKAGAWA Masaaki, Executive Director of ADRC, moderated the discussions and offered
two key takeaways at the closing. First, funds for DRR should not be seen as an expense but as
an investment. It was clear from the presentations, and affirmed during the discussions, that $1
in DRR investment would render $4 in benefits. Moreover, DRR investments are not always
infrastructure investments. Stakeholders can also invest in planning, policies, regulations,
databases, and nature-based solutions. Second, DRR investments must be people-centered. As
observed in the past, investments focused on economic growth could expand income inequality,
such that poor people remain disproportionately affected by disasters or global pandemics.