GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)

Grant for Global Sustainability
United Nations University
Financed by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology, Japan“Enhancement of urban disaster resiliencethrough activities of local participatory platform”（参加型プラットフォームの活動による都市の災害レジリエンスの向上）

Interim Report

Project implementation period: August 2015 to March 2018
Reporting period: August 2015 to September 2016

Project leader: Dr. Kenji OKAZAKI （岡崎健二）
Position: Professor
Affiliation: Global Environmental Architecture,
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Implementing organization: Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies

Project accepted in FY 2015

GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)

１．

Outline of the Project Implementation① Objective and Project Outline
Catastrophic natural disasters have been occurring frequently over the world in recent years, killing hundreds ofthousands of people. Urban disaster risk is also on the rise due to rapid urban growth and due to vulnerable buildings
and infrastructure. Hence, the enhancement of urban resilience against natural disasters is one of the urgent andimportant global issues. This project is implemented in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Yangon, Myanmar, which are prone
and vulnerable to natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, aiming to enhance the resilience of the cities against
natural disasters through capacity building of the local stakeholders. Kathmandu tackles earthquake disasters while
Yangon tackles earthquake and cyclone disasters. Based on the results of these pilot projects, a universal model for
urban resilience enhancement will be developed. The goals of the project are to contribute to the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, to attain effective and robust science-policy interfaces at the local level, and to contributeto the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, adopted during the 2015 UN World Conference
on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR). The project will be conducted from September 2015 to March 2018 for
two years and seven months, with the Grant for Global Sustainability (GGS) initiated by the United Nations
University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan.

② Progress with Respect to the Original Implementation Plan
The project leader and some researchers visited Yangon from 10 to 12 September and Kathmandu from 6 to 10
October to discuss with the key experts and possible counterparts and identified the participating organizations fromthe two cities. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was concluded between GSGES and the local counterpart
organizations in the two cities to clarify the role and responsibilities of the participating parties. MOU with
Kathmandu was concluded on 22 January 2016 and MOU with Yangon on 12 February 2016. The international
kick-off conference was organized in Kathmandu from 21 to 23 January 2016 and in Yangon from 16 to 19 March
2016 to launch the pilot project in the two cities and to initiate discussion on the establishment of local participatory
platforms needed for the enhancement of urban disaster resilience.

③ Mid-term Progress and Achievements
All municipalities involved in the GGS Project were able to conduct the target three local platform workshops forthe period ending in August 2016. All the workshops were well attended, with the number of participants ranging
from 35 to 108 per workshop. The cities made sure that different groups of stakeholders, including women andchildren, were represented in the workshops. As the activities of the workshops, the participants learned disasterrisks, purpose of the GGS Project, and participated in trainings and town watching.
There are a total of nine joint research teams: five in Myanmar and four in Nepal. The Japanese researchers andinternational experts have been imparting their knowledge to the municipalities, NGOs, and universities in
Kathmandu and Yangon. In general, project implementation has been smooth despite some delays in theestablishment of the local platforms and in the start of the joint research activities of some teams. It is expected thatby the end of 2016, project activities will be completed as scheduled.

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２．

Progress of Project Implementation① Background and Objectives
Catastrophic natural disasters have been occurring frequently over the world in recent years, killing hundreds ofthousands of people. Urban disaster risk is also on the rise due to rapid urban growth and vulnerable buildings andinfrastructure. As the level of disaster resilience of a city can be defined as a total of physical vulnerability andcapacity of all stakeholders, all the stakeholders should build up their capacity jointly to improve hard and soft
measures in order to enhance the resilience of the city.
This project aims to enhance resilience of cities against natural disasters through capacity buildings of stakeholders
in a city. The pilot projects are conducted in two selected cities from Asia, which is prone to various severe disasters,
namely, Kathmandu (Nepal) and Yangon (Myanmar). Kathmandu will target earthquake disasters, trying to assess
ongoing recovery and reconstruction activities after the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, and reflect the findings of the
project to these activities to “Build Back Better”. Yangon is targeting earthquake and cyclone disasters. The projectis conducted for nearly three years. It is expected that through the project activities all the stakeholders will be able
to better understand the risks and probable damages caused by natural disasters as their own problems to be tackled,
and will be motivated or be willing to take appropriate actions for disaster reduction by themselves. In this way, theresilience of the pilot cities will be enhanced.

② Implementation Methodology
Firstly, pilot projects are conducted in Kathmandu and Yangon. The two cities establish a local platform wherestakeholders work and discuss together to understand and assess the disaster risk of the city, estimate probabledamages, propose policies, and make action plans. Some local projects for disaster education and community-based
disaster management are also implemented. In order to facilitate these activities, local counterpart organizations are
selected from local governments, universities, and NGOs. The municipality manages the platform, while theuniversity and NGO give technical advices to the platform, and are assigned to implement projects for disastereducation and community-based disaster management projects. The local counterpart organizations receive
technical support from Japanese experts and receive financial assistance to cover part of actual expenses as a seedmoney. In addition, the local universities and NGOs and Japanese researchers conduct some joint researches tosupport the enhancement of urban disaster resilience.
Secondly, a universal model for urban resilience enhancement will be developed using a multi-disciplinary approach,i.e., through a combination of engineering approach and political/social approach, based on the experiences of thepilot projects and the joint researches in the two cities. The model will describe how to conduct similar projects toenhance the resilience against various natural disasters. The model will be freely available with archived data on
the web. The participating international organizations and experts will encourage other cities in the world to utilize
the model through their international network. The pilot cities are also expected to transfer their experiences to other
cities in the country and neighboring countries. In order to disseminate the findings of the project and exchange
information, international conferences will be held twice during the project, at the beginning and the end of the threeyear project.
Table 1. Schedule of the activities-2-

GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)
The project is being conducted by the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto
University, in collaboration with some Japanese researchers from other institutions. Japanese researchers conduct
some specific researches in cooperation with the local academicians at inter-disciplinary basis, combining
engineering, sociology and humanities. For risk assessment and damage estimate of earthquakes and capacity
development, the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation is assisting the two pilot cities jointly. The GEM
Foundation is a public-private partnership that drives a global collaborative effort to develop high-quality resources
for assessment of earthquake risk and to facilitate their application for risk management. The tools, data, andmethods of GEM can be applied to the pilot cities.

③ Progress with Respect to the Original Implementation Plan
A. Identification of the Participating Organizations
Local counterparts
The project leader and some researchers visited Yangon from 10 to 12 September and Kathmandu from 6 to 10
October to discuss with the key experts and possible counterparts and identified the participating organizations fromthe two cities as follows:
Kathmandu Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City Office (LSMC) and Karyabinayak Municipality Office (KM)
 Center for Disaster Studies (CDS), Institute of Engineering (IOE), Tribhuvan University
 National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET)
Yangon Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC)
 Faculty of Engineering, Yangon Technological University (YTU)
 Myanmar Engineering Society (MES)Japanese researchers
Participating researchers from Japan were identified as follows:
GSGES Kenji Okazaki (Prof.): Project Leader
 Junji Kiyono (Prof.), Aiko Furukawa (Assoc. Prof.): Urban seismic risk assessment Rajib Shaw (former Professor of GSGES, now the Executive Director of the Integrated Research on
Disaster Risk (IRDR) Program based in Beijing), Koichi Shiwaku (Researcher): Disaster education andaction plan Kenji Okazaki (Prof.), Hirohide Kobayashi (Assoc. Prof.): Housing safety and risk perception
 Makoto Usami (Prof.): Social fairness of policies and action plans
Others Kazuyoshi Nishijima (Assoc. Prof., Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University) andSeitaro Tajiri (Assoc. Prof., Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo): Practical seismic
diagnosis methods reflecting variation in building quality
International experts
GEM Foundation
 Carlos Villacis (Regional Project Manager and Strategy Coordinator)
 Christopher Burton (Social Vulnerability and Integrated Risk Coordinator)-3-

GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)

Figure 1. Participating organizations and the established structure (Yangon)

B. Conclusion of MOU
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was concluded between GSGES and the local counterpart organizationsin the two cities to clarify the role and responsibilities of the participating parties. MOU with Kathmandu wasconcluded on 22 January 2016 and MOU with Yangon on 12 February 2016. The role and responsibilities of theparticipating parties are provided in MOU as follows:
Municipalities:
 Establish and manage a participatory platform Develop the earthquake damage estimate and the action plan
University: Provide scientific and technical advice to municipalities Conduct joint researches with the Japanese researchersNGO: Provide technical and practical advice to the municipalities Conduct community-based projects
GSGES
 Provide technical advice and financial assistance as grant

C. International Kick-off Conference
The international kick-off conference was organized in Kathmandu from 21 to 23 January 2016 and in Yangon from
16 to 19 March 2016 to launch the pilot project in the two cities and to initiate discussion on the establishment oflocal participatory platforms needed for the enhancement of urban disaster resilience and to conduct a field survey
for the international participants. The international kick-off conference reports are in Annex 1 (Kathmandu) andAnnex 2 (Yangon).

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Figure 2. Kick-off conference in Kathmandu in January 2016 (left) and in Yangon in March
After the discussion among the local stakeholders during and after the kick-off conference, the following has been
decided regarding the local platform and the pilot areas within the cities.
Table 2. Targeted areas for the local platform
Kathmandu, Nepal
Lalitpur SubWard No. 16
The existing DRR Committee of Ward No.
Metropolitan City
16 is used as the platform.
Karyabinayak
Khokana Village Development
A municipal-level local platform andMunicipality
Committee (VDC)
VDC-level platform are established.
Yangon, Myanmar
Pazundaung TownshipNo. 2 Ward
The existing Disaster Management
Committee (DMC) at the ward level is
Tamwe Township
Byane Kwet Thit Ward
used as the platform.

D. Collaboration between the two cities
In order to promote collaboration between Kathmandu and Yangon, three experts of Yangon were invited to the
kick-off conference in Kathmandu and two experts of Kathmandu were invited to the kick-off conference in Yangon.
In addition, one Yangon expert was invited to participate in the GEM training workshop, which was held for twodays in October 2015 in Pavia, Italy.

④ Mid-term Progress and Achievements
A. Local Platform Activities
All municipalities involved in the GGS Project were able to conduct the target three local platform workshops forthe period ending in August 2016. All the workshops were well attended, with the number of participants ranging
from 35 to 108 per workshop. The cities made sure that different groups of stakeholders, including women andchildren, were represented in the workshops.

Figure 3. Resilience Performance Scorecard workshop in Kathmandu in May 2016 (left) and townwatching workshop in Yangon in July

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Table 3. Local platform workshops
Karyabinayak, Nepal
Lalitpur, Nepal
22 January 2016
First
Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur
Workshop
73 participants
Kick-off conference
18 May 2016
19 May 2016
SecondClock Building, Bhaisepati
Ashok Hall, Patan
Workshop
76 participants
108 participants (Ward 16)
Introduction of GGS Project;
Introduction of GGS Project;
Resilience Scorecard
Resilience Scorecard
workshop
workshop
8-12 August 2016
5 August 2016
Third
Karyabinyaka Municipality
Dhapagal, Lalitpur
WorkshopMeeting Hall
90 participants (Ward 16)
35 participants (DMC
Identifying community
members only)
vulnerabilities and capacities
CBDRM training

Yangon, Myanmar
18 March 2016
MES Building
80 participants
Kick-off conference
22 June 2016
Explanation about GGS
Project and joint research;selection of pilot wards

15 July 2016
Yangon City Hall / 2 wards
Various presentations (a.m.)and town-watching (p.m.)

The Interim Report of Karyabinayak Municipality, Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, and Yangon City Development
Committee (YCDC) showing the details of the workshops they conducted can be found in Annex 3, Annex 4, andAnnex 7, respectively. These Interim Reports include the list of local platform members and the tentative scheduleof local platform activities until March 2018.
The Interim Report of the two NGOs supporting the local platforms, NSET in Nepal and MES in Yangon, are inAnnex 5 and Annex 8. These reports show the technical and practical assistance the NGOs provided to themunicipalities.

B. Joint Research Activities
During and after the kick-off conferences, the Japanese researchers and local experts discussed the research topics
and elaborated on how the research should be conducted. They also identified the local joint research participants
such as professors, students, and government officers. There are a total of nine joint research teams (five in Myanmar
and four in Nepal) covering five research topics.
The joint research team on urban seismic risk assessment (led by Prof. Junji Kiyono and Assoc. Prof. Aiko
Furukawa) will draw damage index curves with and without reinforcement in Kathmandu based on collected data.
In Yangon, fragility curves for local structure will be constructed. Prof. Kiyono attended both kick-off conferencesin Kathmandu and Yangon and met with local members of his team. He also met with his team members in Yangon
and in Kathmandu on separate occasions in June.
The joint research team on practical structural performance diagnosis methods reflecting variation inconstruction quality (led by Assoc. Prof. Kazuyoshi Nishijima and Assoc. Prof. Seitaro Tajiri) will develop an
approach to assess connections of structural elements and effects of construction quality as well as develop a
simplified method to evaluate local technology to reinforce the structural performance. Their research will be
conducted in Yangon only. Prof. Nishijima and Prof. Tajiri attended the kick-off conference in Yangon. Prof.
Nishijima and one of his doctoral students conducted a preliminary survey on contruction quality at selected
constructions sites in Yangon in July.
The joint research team on disaster education and action plan (led by Dr. Rajib Shaw and Dr. Koichi Shiwaku)
are applying assessment tools such as the Climate Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI) and School Disaster Resilience
Assessment (SDRA) in the pilot wards in Kathmandu and Yangon. They are investigating how to engage
communities and schools in developing school-centered disaster resilience action plans. Both Dr. Shaw and Dr.
Shiwaku attended the kick-off conference in Kathmandu. Their team was able to conduct surveys and interviews in
February and in August in Kathmandu and in March and in July in Yangon.
The joint research team on risk perception and housing safety (led by Prof. Kenji Okazaki and Assoc. Prof.
Hirohide Kobayashi) aims to better understand the earthquake risk perception of people and their lifestyles in orderto develop policies and strategies to motivate people to construct and maintain safer buildings. In Kathmandu, theteam will investigate how the houses and communities have been reconstructed after 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. Both
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Prof. Okazaki and Prof. Kobayashi attended the kick-off conference in Kathmandu while Prof. Okazaki attended
the kick-off conference in Yangon. The team had conducted a pre-survey in Kathmandu in May and a pre-survey
in Yangon in July.

Figure 4. Risk perception and housing safety pre-survey in Kathmandu in May 2016 (left)
and in Yangon in July
The joint research team on social fairness of policies and action plans (led by Prof. Makoto Usami) will conduct
normative analysis of measurement problems concerning stakeholders’ needs and will study justice in distributing
goods and services among people who might have conflicting. Prof. Usami had attended the kick-off conference inboth Kathmandu and Yangon as well as met with his team members in Yangon in July.
An Interim Report has been prepared for each of the five research topics. These reports are in Annexes 10 to 14.
The Interim Report of the two local universities, Tribhuvan University in Nepal and YTU in Myanmar, are in Annex
6 and Annex 9, respectively. The list of members of the joint research teams are in Annex 15 (Nepal) and Annex
16 (Myanmar).
In general, project implementation has been smooth despite some delays in the establishment of the local platforms
and in the start of the joint research activities of some teams. Establishing and maintaining local platforms and joint
research teams take time for the members to coalesce and work smoothly with each other. It is expected that by theend of 2016, project activities will be completed as scheduled.

⑤ Status of Knowledge Transfer to Counterparts
The Japanese researchers and international experts have been imparting their knowledge to the municipalities,
NGOs, and universities in Kathmandu and Yangon. For example, Japanese researchers had demonstrated to local
counterparts how to properly conduct surveys and interviews and emphasized the importance of high-quality
primary data. In the case of the joint research on risk perception and housing safety, the members of the Japan teamchecked the answers to the completed pre-survey questionnaires and provided feedback to the local university
students on how to correctly record reponses and how to elicit more detailed answers from the respondents throughthe use of examples or by asking follow-up questions. In terms of preparing house drawings, Japanese researchers
showed the local university professors and students how to use the laser measuring device. They will later be
provided instructions and feedback on house drawings rendered in AutoCAD, to help them improve theirproficiency in the use of the design software. In the other joint research topics, the local counterparts are exposedto the updated theories and methodologies being followed by the Japanese researchers.
Briefing and de-briefing meetings are frequently held by the joint research teams to explain the tasks to be carriedout and to review if the tasks had indeed been performed properly. The local counterparts are given opportunities
to share their knowledge and opinion or to ask questions.
The local counterparts mentioned that the joint research topics were new to them and that they were interested to be
involved in the joint research because they wanted to learn more and because they believed that the topics would be
useful in their own research and work.
The international experts also transferred knowledge to the local counterparts. By learning from GEM, NSET isalready able to conduct the Resilience Performance Scorecard workshop by itself. What GEM may need to do next
in the future is to help the NGOs and municipalities on how to analyze data and write a report. These skills will be-7-

GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)
helpful and useful to the NGOs and municipalities, not just for the GGS Project but also for their other current aswell as future projects. GEM had also previously offered to provide online training to the local counterparts inYangon on the use of the GEM tools in earthquake risk assessment.
Both Japanese and international experts shared their experiences from previous similar projects (e.g., RADIUS) andfrom disaster risk management in Japan to the local counterparts during the workshops or in conversations. In
return, the Japanese researchers and international experts get to know more about the situation in Nepal and
Myanmar from the local project partners. The GGS Project allows all the participants to learn from each other.

⑥ Unforeseen Circumstances
Organizing workshops has been challenging due to the busy schedule of the participating organizations. For example,
June and July are extremely busy months in Nepal as government offices are closing the fiscal year and preparing
for the next one. In Nepal there are also several other post-2015 Gorkha Earthquake projects involving the GGS
Project partner organizations there. For example, Lalitpur is involved in a JICA project on preparing a build backbetter recovery plan. Our GGS Project focal person is now handling all DRM-related projects in Lalitpur so it isvery challenging for him to meet with local platform members and organize workshops with them.
Recently, the 2016 Chauk Earthquake on August 24 in Myanmar which damaged nearly 400 pagodas in the ancient
city of Bagan had preoccupied our partner NGO in Yangon. MES has been very busy in the earthquake damage
assessment. There was a three-week delay in the submission of the Interim Report of the participating organizations
based in Yangon. On the other hand, however, the earthquake was a wake-up call for earthquake disaster risk
management for the people of Yangon.
The participation of the Japanese researchers in local platform workshops has also been hindered by the tightschedule of classes and meetings in the university. Not all Japanese researchers have been able to visit Kathmandu
and Yangon as often as recommended.
The political situation in Nepal and Myanmar had changed since the GGS Project had started. Myanmar elected a
new president on 15 March 2016 (just before the kick-off conference in Yangon) while Nepal’s prime minister
resigned on 24 July 2016. The kick-off conference in Yangon could not have been organized earlier because of the
anticipated political change in Myanmar, causing a slight delay in the start of the local platform and joint research
activities.

３．

How to Proceed and Future Outlook

In the Interim Report of most of the participating organizations, a schedule of their activities until March 2018 has
been included. These activities are summarized in Annex 17 (Local Platform Activities) and in Annex 18 (Joint
Research Activities).
The local platforms will be focusing on completing their risk assessment from October 2016 to March 2017. There
will be three local platform workshops in each of the pilot wards during this period. Then from April 2017 to March
2018, the local platforms will be preparing in a participatory manner their disaster resilience action plan based on
the risk assessment result.
Activities of the joint research teams are on-going. Many of the teams are currently planning their data-gathering
activities. Several teams are scheduled to visit Nepal and Myanmar in October, November, and December 2016.
The joint research teams on risk perception and housing safety will have their full survey in Yangon from 19 to
22 October and in Kathmandu from 22 to 25 November. At least 100 households will be surveyed in each of thetarget wards. The joint research team on urban seismic risk assessment will conduct a field survey to collect datain Kathmandu from 2 to 6 December. Their local counterparts at Tribhuvan University are now obtaining the tensile
strength of typical masonry bricks in order for the team to conduct the numerical analysis of a masonry building.
The joint research team on practical structural performance diagnosis methods reflecting variation inconstruction quality will be conducting a survey in Yangon in the latter half of December to identify and selectconstruction sites to monitor until the first half of 2017. In the second half of 2017, the construction quality will beassessed. A revised manual for inspection of construction quality will be prepared. The joint research team on
disaster education and action plan, which started earlier than the other teams, is now analyzing data gatheredfrom surveys and interviews conducted in February and in August in Kathmandu and in March and in July in Yangon.
The joint research team on social fairness of policies and action plans will be collecting data for the normative
analysis of distributive and discursive issues in the context of the local platform activities in Kathmandu and Yangon.
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Team members will attend local platform meetings and workshops to observe participants’ discursive patterns,
collect demographic and cultural data, and develop a normative model of distribution and consensus building.
It is expected that, with the learning curve, organizing the succeeding local platform and joint research activities
will be smoother than during the first reporting period.

４．

Project Implementation Challenges and How to Overcome Them

As mentioned earlier, conflicting schedules is a major concern in the implementation of local platform activities
and joint research activities. Through the use of a master calendar showing the activities until March 2018, we
expect better attendance from everyone involved in the project, including the ward residents and partnerorganizations.
Learning from lessons from the first three workshops conducted in each municipality, the local platforms andsupporting organizations can now anticipate the optimal duration of the workshops. For example, in both
Karyabinayak and Lalitpur, the number of participants drastically dwindled in the afternoon when the workshop
was whole-day long.
An issue had also been raised that the amount of the conditional grant is too small for implementing local platformprojects. The municipalities are encouraged to secure additional funds from other sources and to implement projects
at the ward level only, not municipality-wide. This is a concern that will have to be tackled by the local platform
members repeatedly in the next few months.
There is also some apprehension that short-term projects such as this GGS Project will only come up with actionplans with no further support for the actual implementation of the action plans. For example, in Lalitpur, several
action plans had been prepared in the past with assistance from Red Cross and from Oxfam. After the previous
projects ended, the municipality was left on its own to act on the action plans. In the end, very little was implemented.
There should be discussions among local platform members and supporting organizations regarding the preparationand implementation of the action plans during and after the implementation period of the GGS Project. This is why
this project is trying to enhance the capacity of stakeholders and the feeling of “ownership” of the project.

５．

Application and Dissemination of the Results

As only one year has passed since the initiation of the project, we do not have much project results yet. However,through the collaboration to establish the local platform in the two pilot cities and through the activities of the local
platform for about half a year, the stakeholders are better understanding the disaster risk in their communities. It is
expecteded that they will understand what will be happening in case of a disaster, by the end of FY 2016, and they
will be able to understand what kinds of actions should be taken to reduce disasters. Through the project, it isexpected that the stakeholders will develop an Action Plan and some of the activities in the Action Plan will be
implemented. Collaboration among local governments, universities, and NGOs, which are strengthened by the
project, will definitely promote such activities.
By the end of the project in March 2018, the universal model to enhance urban resilience against disasters will be
developed and it will be available on the Internet. It is expected that other cities will try to apply the model withassistance from international organizations. The pilot cities are also expected to transfer their experiences to other
cities in their country.

６．

Contribution toward the realization of SDGs, toward Japan's increased presence, etc.

This GGS Project will contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal
4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all), Goal 11(Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), and Goal 17 (Strengthen the meansof implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development). Some of the local platform
and joint research activities will involve the promotion of safe and resilient housing through the participatory
planning and management of human settlements with the aim of helping reduce the number of deaths and injuries
due to earthquakes and cyclones. Through this GGS Project, organizations based in Japan and Italy are assisting
cities in Nepal and Myanmar in preparing disaster resilience action plans.

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The GGS Project will also contribute to the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
2015–2030 (SFDRR), particularly in Priority 1 (Understanding disaster risk) and Priority 2 (Strengthening
disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk). The GGS Project will promote the collection, analysis, and useof risk data and information, as well as facilitate the assessment of vulnerability, capacity, and exposure of the pilot
wards in Kathmandu and Yangon. By working with the municipalities, the GGS Project can build the disaster risk
management (DRM) capacity of government officials through sharing experiences, lessons learned, and goodpractices and through training and research. Local participatory platforms are established to promote and improve
dialogue and cooperation among government officials, residents, NGOs, university researchers, and otherstakeholders in order to facilitate effective decision-making in DRM.
The GGS Project will also contribute to the “Human Security”, which the Japanese Government is taking lead inpromoting. Protecting human lives from disasters is one of the most important issues under “Human Security”.
The GGS Project is contributing to Japan’s increased presence in Nepal and Myanmar and will complement efforts
made by JICA and the embassies of Japan in the two countries as well as those of the Japanese civil society
organizations. The joint research component will be helping the professors and students in the partner local
universities and will hopefully encourage them to be interested and to be engaged in research conducted by and inJapanese universities, such as Kyoto University.

７．

Project OutreachAt this point, the GGS Project has not yet produced any research papers or research presentations as the local
platform activies and joint research activies are just gaining momentum. However, Prof. Okazaki introduced thisproject in his keynote speech and paper of “For Safer Houses and Resilient Communities” at the 6th International
Conference on Science and Engineering at YTC on 13 December 2015.
So far, most of the announcements and news about the GGS Project are on the website of the partner organizations,such as the following:International kick-off conference in Kathmandu
NSET website: http://www.nset.org.np/nset2012/index.php/event/eventdetail/eventid-309
GSGES website: http://www2.ges.kyoto-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SNL_No13.pdf

Third local platform workshop in Yangon on 15 July 2016 was covered by Myanmar Radio andTelevision (MRTV). A copy of the news segment can be viewed using this link:
https://www.facebook.com/mrtvwebmediaportal/videos/1139106822801809/



Reports of the activities of the joint research on risk perception and housing safety are uploaded to thewebsite of the Global Environmental Architecture Laboratory headed by Prof. Okazaki:
http://www.gea-lab.ges.kyoto-u.ac.jp/news.html



The GGS Project has a dedicated website for sharing updates and announcements:
https://ggsurbanresilience.wordpress.com/- 10 -GGS Interim report (08 2015 – 09 2016)
List of Annexes
Annex 1
Annex 2Annex 3Annex 4
Annex 5Annex 6
Annex 7
Annex 8Annex 9Annex 10Annex 11
Annex 12Annex 13
Annex 14Annex 15
Annex 16
Annex 17
Annex 18

International Kick-off Conference Report (Nepal)
International Kick-off Conference Report (Myanmar)
Interim Activity Report of Karyabinayak Municipality
Interim Activity Report of Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City (LSMC)Interim Activity Report of National Society for Earthquake Technology – Nepal (NSET)Interim Activity Report of Center for Disaster Studies (CDS)
Interim Activity Report of Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC)Interim Activity Report of Myanmar Engineering Society (MES)Interim Activity Report of Yangon Technological University (YTU
Interim Activity Report of the Joint Research Team on Urban Seismic Risk Assessment
Interim Activity Report of the Joint Research Team on Disaster Education
Interim Activity Report of the Joint Research Team on Structural Performance Diagnosis
Interim Activity Report of the Joint Research Team on Risk Perception and Housing Safety
Interim Activity Report of the Joint Research Team on Social Fairness of Action Plans
List of Joint Research Team Members (Nepal)
List of Joint Research Team Members (Myanmar)
GGS Project Activity Calendar (Local Platform Activities)
GGS Project Activity Calendar (Joint Research Activities)- 11 -