5. The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction

5-4. Public Forum
5-4-1. Public Forum; Sharing of Experiences for Safer Asia “TDRM andits Good Practices”(The 7th ADRC International Meeting)１）

Date ：
January 19 (Wed), 2005

２）

Venue：
International Conference Center Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

３）

Organizer:
Asian Disaster Reduction Center, Hyogo Prefectural government and UN/OCHA Kobe

Participants:
210 (government officials from ADRC member countries, representatives ofinternational and regional organizations and others)
５） Program- Opening Remarks
Mr. Tadashi Harada, Deputy Director General for Disaster Management, Cabinet
Office, Government of Japan- Signing of MoU between UNESCO and ADRC
Speech by Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNSECO
Speech by Dr. Shigeru Itoh, Chairman, ADRC
- Keynote Speech “Promotion of TDRM in Asia”
Mr. Masayuki Kitamoto, Executive Director, ADRC
- Special Report “The Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia”
Mr. Sugeng Triutomo, Director, Department of Disaster Mitigation, National Disaster
Management Coordinating Board, Indonesia- Reporting session of good practice (5 countries)
Facilitator: Mr. Emmanuel de Guzman, Consultant, ADRC・ Bangladesh (H.E. Mr. Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, Honourable Minister,
Ministry of Food and Disaster Management)
・ Philippines (Col. Ms. Elma Aldea, Administrator, Office of Civil Defense,Department of National Defense)
・ Laos (Mr. Vilayphong Sisomvang, Training Manager, Department of Social
Welfare and National Disaster Management, Ministry of Labour and SocialWelfare)・ China (Ms. Yuan Yi, Program Officer, China National Center for DisasterReduction)
・ Tajikistan (Mr. A. Rajabov, First Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations andCivil Defense, Tajikistan /Khusrav Sharifov, Program Officer, UNDP Tajikistan)- Summary of the session
Mr. Emmanuel de Guzman, Consultant, ADRC- Closing Remarks
Mr. Masayuki Kitamoto, Executive Director, ADRC

４）

６）

Summary
As one of the public forums during the World Conference on Disaster Reduction(WCDR), the forum had a great significance for Asian countries to further promote Total
Disaster Risk Management (TDRM) and identify concrete measures and actions effective in
reducing risk and vulnerability to disasters in Asia. With Mr. Emmanuel de Guzman,
Consultant to the ADRC, as the facilitator, government officials from Bangladesh, Philippines,

5. The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction

Laos, and China, as well as Tajikistan, made presentations on their good practices.
In addition, a special report on the situation of damage caused by the Indonesian
Earthquake and Tsunami was provided by Mr. Sugeng Triutomo, Director, Dept. of Disaster
Mitigation, National Disaster Management Coordinating Board, Indonesia.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed and excharged between theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the ADRC
to establish long-standing cooperative ties in the area of natural disaster reduction. Mr.
Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, expressed his intention to promote themutual exchange of information, experiences and theoretical and practical expertise regarding
natural disaster reduction between the two organizations.

5. The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction

5-4-2. ADRRN Workshop
１）

Theme:
Enhancing Effectiveness in Disaster Risk Management through Partnerships

２）

Purpose:Disaster risk management is a field that involves many players. Lack ofcollaboration poses a great challenge. A cross-sectoral partnership is effective forenhancing disaster risk management capability. Therefore, it is highly
beneficial to establish a platform for a regional partnership to that effect. The
Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) is one such platformthat brings together NGOs and other key stakeholders including the ADRC andUN/OCHA Kobe.
Quoting good practices of ADRRN member NGOs, the workshop provided
the audience including non-experts with an introductory insight into the roleeach individual and organization can play in disaster reduction, The workshop
also placed a focus on the importance of, and challenges in, establishing a
network and partnership involving all stakeholders.

３）

Date：
Saturday, January 22, 2005

４）

Organizer :The Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN)

５）

Co-organizer:ADRC, OCHA Kobe

６）

Program
1. Opening : Masayuki Kitamoto, Executive Director, ADRC
2. Presentations- Ensuring effective Disaster Response through TDRM: Emerging
challenges to Governments, International Organizations and Civil Society
by Emmanuel de Guzman, Vice President, ALERT, Philippines)- The Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake - Reflecting Ten Years and Lessons
Learnt by Japanese NGOs by Hiroshi Oe, Chief Director, Center for Global& Local Community, Yokohama YMCA
- Formal and Informal Networking for Earthquake Risk Management inNepal by Amod Mani Dixit, Executive Director, National Society forEarthquake Technology- NSET- Bridging the Gap between Knowledge & Practice by Manu Gupta,
Sustainable Environment and Eco Development Society - SEEDS- Mobilizing Communities in a Disaster - The Sri Lankan Experience byVinya S. Ariyaratne, Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement- Disaster Risk Management in Asia: A Network in Action by Jemilah
Mahmood, MERCY Malaysia
3. Panel Discussion/ Q&A
4. Closing: Terje Skavdal, Regional Disaster Response Advisor, Asian DisasterResponse Unit, OCHA Kobe７）

Conclusion
The forum listened to various experiences in reducing negative impact ofdisasters from member NGOs of ADRRN that was formally structured inDecember 2003. It also focused on the importance of enhancing the multi-sectoral5. The United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction

partnership and network for effective disaster reduction.
It was agreed that complementing knowledge and resource sharing in thenetwork would further enhance their delivery and managing disasters. A fresh
small organization would benefit greatly from the network as they already have awealth of experience and resources to be shared among the members.
All of these said, the network is not without challenges. The audiencehighlighted some of their concerns on how challenging it is to maintain a healthy
and active network partnership in growing bigger. Regular meetings would be
helpful in legitimizing transparency, accountability and operations. However therapid growth and increasing numbers of organization and stakeholders in theregion will put some stress on the network for funds and a strong administration.
It was recognized that building up of concrete mechanism for securing fund is an
important task for maintaining network.

Fig.5-4-2-1 Active discussion in the panel discussion