Funded by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), ICHARM co-organized “ADBI-ICHARM Policy Dialogue Water-related Disaster Resilience under Climate Change” on January 27-28, 2020, at ADBI, Tokyo, Japan. Placing a high priority on the policy-relevant aspects of water-related disaster resilience, this policy dialogue focused on exploring and discussing initiatives and efforts for strengthening governance and investment for water-related disaster resilience under climate change in Asia through transdisciplinary dialogue and collaborative work between the science and technology community and other stakeholders, including senior government officials and experts from international development organizations.
In the opening plenary, Prof. YOSHINO Naoyuki, the dean of ADBI, and Prof. KOIKE Toshio, the director of ICHARM, gave a welcome address, followed by the keynote presentation by Mr. YAMADA Kunihiro, the vice-minister for Engineering Affairs, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Japan. The policy dialogue was composed of four sessions: “Sharing Experiences,” “Strengthening Governance,” “Encouraging Investment” and “Implementation Design.” The session keynotes and presentations were made by the representatives from the Platform participating organizations of the IFI project implementing countries (the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Indonesia) and the experts from the government or academic organizations of Japan. It was also attended by the representatives of relevant international organizations.
The conference emphasized that policy makers and experts need to share knowledge for reducing water-related disaster risks under climate change via improved policy coordination, financing and investment, and the application of science and technology. The conclusion will be summarized into a “Policy Brief,” which is expected to be a key input for major international and regional conferences on water-related disaster risk reduction, such as the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit to be held in Kumamoto, Japan, on October 19-20, 2020.
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 Group photo at the Opening plenary |