5. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries, International Organizations and NGOs

5-3. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries,
International Organizations and NGOs
The ADRC places high priority on the development of institutional and personal network toshare disaster information in the Asia region. Developing personal networks between
professionals and their counterparts in member countries, adviser countries, and observerorganizations is vital to promoting cooperation on disaster reduction efforts in Asia. Therefore,
the ADRC invites management level officials, including deputy directors, directors, andmanagers, to its annual ADRC International Meeting to encourage interpersonal exchanges.

(1) Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
The 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction was held from 22nd to 25th ofOctober 2012 at Jogjakarta city, Indonesia. The government of the Republic of Indonesia andUnited Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) hosted the Conference.
Dr. H. B. Yudhoyono, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ms. Wahlström, UN
Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, the ministers of morethan 50 Asian and Pacific countries, and delegates from DRR departments of each country,
international / regional organizations and NGOs attended the Conference. ADRC dispatched 3
staffs to the Conference.
The main theme of the Conference was “Strengthening Local Capacity for Disaster Risk
Reduction”. Participants introduced their DRR activities in the local level and discussed
post-HFA, new framework as from 2015.
Before opening of the main Conference, “Experts Meeting for the Cooperation between
Indonesia and Japan on Disaster Risk Reduction”, hosted jointly by National Agency for
Disaster Management of Indonesia and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), washeld in the venue of the Conference. It was presented the government of Japan and JICA havemade large commitments to disaster prevention projects in Indonesia, and further close
cooperation between two was confirmed.

A staff of ADRC was appointed as a facilitator of asession, “Japan’s disaster prevention measure”.
During the Conference period, several side events were held. ADRC and JICA convened a
symposium titled “Lessons Learnt from Mega Disasters and Mainstreaming DRM toward
post-HFA” as a side event. This symposium aims to disseminate the knowledge and new DRR
policy of the Japanese Government and JICA based on the lessons learnt from recent
mega-disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Thai Flood in 2011. As the delegateof the Japanese Government, Mr. Azuma Kon’no, then the Deputy Minister of State for Disaster
Management, gave the keynote speech of the symposium, and introduced the recent changes ofJapanese policy towards “mainstreaming” of DRR, as well as expressing an appreciation
rendered to Japan from foreign governments when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit easternJapan. A staff of ADRC delivered a lecture titled “the Earthquake and Tsunami disaster in Japan- Experience and Lessons”, based on the research on the damage and recovery process in 201153

tsunami devastated areas done by International Recovery Platform. Some audiences thanked forthe sharing valuable knowledge and information on the Japanese DRR lessons and pointed thatthose knowledge and information could be incorporated into the post-HFA.
And United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management andEmergency Response (UN-SPIDER) hosted a side event symposium “Improve DRR Practices
based on the Lessons Learned from Major Disasters in Asia – A Space Technology Intervention–“, in which participants introduced good practices on space technology such as imaginary fromsatellites utilized for DRR. A staff of ADRC, which had been promoted those activities through“Sentinel Asia” framework, made a presentation titled “Considerations for effective use of space
based information to assess Tsunami impact - Lessons learned from recent Tsunami in Japan –“.
The output of 5th AMCDRR was “Jogjakarta Declaration”, which call on the stakeholders; 1)
integrate local level disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into national
development planning, 2) assess local probable risk, then financially support local communities
liaising with private sectors, and 3) promote participation by multi actors such as women,children, and handicapped people in local level disaster prevention measure.

And, it was alsostressed post-HFA as from 2015 should be collaborated with post-MDGs, which is also
terminated at the same time.

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5. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries, International Organizations and NGOs

(2) ISDR Asia Partnership Meeting
The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) participated in the ISDR Asia Partnership(IAP) meeting held on 9-11 April in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting was attended byapproximately 60 participants, including representatives from many countries in Asia as well asfrom international and inter-governmental organizations.
The key components of the meeting were as follows:
1) Update on preparations for the 5th AMCDRR
Reports were given on the preparations for the 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on
Disaster Risk Reduction scheduled to be held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on 22-25 October
this year.
2) Discussion of the AMCDRR structureGroup discussions were held on the AMCDRR structure and outcomes.
3) HFA monitoring and review
Thailand, Mongolia, UNOPS, ASEAN, and UNICEF reported on the activities they haveundertaken based on the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA).
4) Post-HFA framework
Participants discussed a post-HFA framework based on the challenges that have been faced
under the HFA. ADRC gave a presentation on "Business Continuity Management in the Private
Sector for Regional Resiliency," a topic of interest among many participants.

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(3) 7th Typhoon Committee Integrated Workshop
From 26 to 30 November 2012, ADRC participated in the 7th Integrated Workshop of the
Typhoon Committee which was jointly organized by the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the World Meteorological Organization(WMO) Typhoon Committee Secretariat, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), andNanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST) in Nanjing, China. The morethan 100 participants attended the meeting which included representatives from Japan, Lao PDR,
Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, US, Viet Nam, Hong Kong and Macau. The
participants discussed their approaches to issuing “effective warnings”, which was the main
theme of the meeting.
During the workshop, the following lectures were made and active discussions were done:･ Key Elements of an Effective Warning･ Refined Warnings Experiment in Shenzhen municipality･ Radar Rainfall Estimation for Flood Forecast･ The QPE/QPF for effective warning･ Use of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) in Warning Services
The Typhoon Committee has three working groups on meteorology, hydrology, and disasterrisk reduction. This workshop brought the three working groups together for an integrated
meeting. For the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group, Japan's Cabinet Office gave apresentation on the damage caused by typhoons in 2012 and ADRC activities such as the
Visiting Researcher Program.

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5. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries, International Organizations and NGOs

(4) Business Continuity and Disaster Resilience ForumOn 10 May 2012, ADRC participated in “Business Continuity and Disaster Resilience Forum”
in Manila, which was jointly organized by Makati Business Club (approx. 700 major companies
are members) and the American chamber of commerce in Philippine. About 200 participants
including private companies and infrastructure business units attended the forum and had aheated discussion after presentation of “The need and summary of BCP”, “The case example of
Bangkok Bank”, and “The case example of infrastructure and foreign companies.
In this forum, the member companies of Makati club reported the development stage of BCP
which using questionnaire prepared for BCP survey in the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation
region in 2011 under ADRC cooperation.

Following this forum, on 11 May 2012, “Roundtable Discussion on Earthquake Preparedness
and Response for Metro Manila” was held at the meeting room of American chamber ofcommerce. The participants from the government officials, infrastructure company and UN, etc
discussed how to protect the city function from the earthquake.

Active discussions were maderegarding the importance of cooperation between private companies and governmentalorganizations, as well as the presentation of past successful disaster countermeasures and goodpractice of drills.

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(5) Forum and Research on Sichuan Earthquake Recovery
The Forum on "Successful Reconstruction - Looking into the Future - A Discussion on
Disaster Reconstruction and Development Strategy in the Beichuan Earthquake Ruin Area" wasorganized by Sichuan University and IRP on 14th May in Chengdu city, China. It was almost 4
years after the Sichuan Earthquake (12th May 2008). The participants discussed establishmentof new Beichuan Earthquake Museum, the key project of the Beichuan development strategy forthe post disaster recovery, and also discussed the promotion of international contribution on
disaster risk reduction based on the lessons from the Sichuan Earthquake.
Date:

14 May 2012

Venue:Angel Hotel Chengdu (Chengdu city, Sichuan province, China)

Organizer:

Sichuan University and International Recovery Platform (IRP)

Support:Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (DRI), Administration
Center for Beichuan Earthquake Museum, and others

Secretariat: Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR)
Participants: About 50 delegates from Chinese Government, International Organizations,
Research Institutes, and so on
In the key note speech and Report, IRP and DRI explained the experiences of recovery from
Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake, the role of local government in the recovery process, andinternational cooperation as well as the management and development strategy ofHanshin-Awaji Earthquake Museum, while Chinese government reported education andcapacity building on disaster reduction in China, especially focusing on the promotion of
education on disaster reduction at school.
After that, in the panel discussion on "Development Strategy in the Beichuan Earthquake Ruin
Area and International Cooperation", participants exchanged opinions from different point ofview about the development strategy of Beichuan Earthquake Ruin Area as the center fordisaster reduction.
The outcomes of the forum included the signing of cooperation agreement between Sichuan
University and Beichuan Earthquake Museum, and the decision to organize “Tell-Net 2013”
Forum in Sichuan as one of the 5th memorial events of Sichuan Earthquake.

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5. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries, International Organizations and NGOs

After the forum, the IRP/DRI team visited disaster affected sites to inspect the current
recovery status and the recovery process during the past 4 years. In particular, the team visited
the Beichuan Earthquake Ruin Area, the Beichuan Earthquake Museum construction site, New
Beichuan Town which is a relocation case from disaster affected old town, Jina village and Shiyi
village in the Qiang autonomous region as well as other towns and villages.
○The Beichuan Earthquake Ruin Area
This area was former prefectural capital of the Qiang autonomous Prefecture. Since it was
located at the bottom of steep valley where rivers converge, many districts of this town werecovered by landslide caused by the earthquake in addition to the collapse of many buildings bytremor. As a result of the safety investigation, relocation was decided and the affected site was tobe preserved as the memorial ruin area.
○The Beichuan Earthquake Museum
This museum features such architectural design as if the building is buried in the ground withthe design suggestive of a cracked fault. The construction is now in the final stage and it isscheduled to open in fiscal year 2013. It has the site area of 14.23ha, the floor area of 14,280
square meters, and costs 230 million yuan.
<Exhibition (planned)>
5 functions: memorial, exhibition, delivery of event, dissemination and education– Main building: praise of relief activities and recovery-reconstruction achievements– Annex: science education such as earthquake mechanism

The Beichuan Earthquake Ruin Area

The Beichuan Earthquake Museum(under construction)○New Beichuan Town
Development of New Beichuan Town has been progressing with scheduled total area of 9square kilometers and population of 70,000. To develop this new town a part of adjacent Anxian
County was incorporated into Beichuan County. The new town is located about 20 kilometers
away from the old town.

59This area was chosen because it has a fewer disaster risk being located on the flat ground in
the Sichuan basin and also it may have possible economic effects from big cities located close to
the town. The town is zoned into commercial district, public office district, industrial district,and residential district where condominiums with colorful design stand in rows. 30,000 people
already live in this town.

New Beichuan Town

Panorama of the new town

○Jina village
This village is a small village for Beichuan Qiang family (71 households) where most of thehouses were destroyed after the earthquake. Now these houses are reconstructed in Qiang
family-style, and tourism is being promoted by making use of the traditional culture of ethnic
minorities. However, since construction of a new house (2 story-building) cost about 200 to 300
thousand yuan, local residents now seem to be suffering from a big burden of loan repayment
even though they were initially subsidized about 20 thousand yuan from government. (a local
resident interviewed).
○Shiyi village
This is another small village for Beichuan Qiang family (91 households) located on thehighlands in the steep slopes of the mountain. Many houses of this town were severely damagedby the earthquake. After the earthquake, the affected families founded the company jointly andstarted operating business of overnight stay tourism called ‘nongjiale’ utilizing the traditional
culture. They are now attracting a lot of tourists.

Houses and a crow’s nest of Jina village

Entrance gate of Shiyi village60

5. Promoting Cooperation with Member Countries, International Organizations and NGOs

(6) The 3rd Expert Group Meeting on the Great East Japan Earthquake: Applying
Lessons on Recovery from Mega Disasters to Reduce the Impacts of Future
Disasters
The Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) jointly organized the 3rd Expert Meeting on the
Great East Japan Earthquake with the Japanese Cabinet Office, the International Recovery
Platform (IRP), the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), and the United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), in Sendai, Japanon 3-4 July 2012. Held as a side event of the World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reductionin Tohoku, the meeting provided a forum for sharing experiences and lessons learned in theearthquake recovery process with Asia and others in the international community.
The meeting, which was preceded by the first meeting in May 2011 and the second in
December 2011, was attended by approximately 70 participants, including working-level officials
representing various Asian countries, as well as experts from international organizations, NGOs,
and research institutions. It mainly focused on recovery from major disasters and provided
opportunities for intensive discussions to take place around how the lessons learned during theearthquake recovery process in regard to health, the environment, and governance issues might beapplied in future large-scale disasters.
On the second day of the meeting, approximately 40 experts visited
earthquake-affected areas of Sendai City where they observed the current status of recovery in
the area and visited disaster debris processing sites.

61[Agenda for the Expert Meeting]
Keynote Speech: Current State of Reconstruction in Sendai City Issues Associated with
Recovery from Mega Disasters- Governance Issues, Health Issues, Environmental Issues
Panel Discussion: How can lessons regarding health, the environment, and governance issues
during recovery be applied so as to reduce the impacts of future disasters?
To further contribute to disaster reduction activities around the world, ADRC hopes to continue
working with its partner organizations to disseminate knowledge derived from these expert
meetings and to share updates on the recovery status from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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