Announcement

Dr. Haruo HAYASHI, President of NIED, chaired the Pre-session for 2021 IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) Conference, titled Promoting Coherence among Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation, and Sustainable Development by Establishing an “Online Synthesis System (OSS)” and Fostering “Facilitators” using OSS. It was hosted by Japan National Committee (NC) on 20 May. Subsequently, representing NC, he reported the conclusions of the Pre-session and proposals for the draft Global Research Agenda for DRR at IRDR 2021 International Conference held online on 9 June.

In his opening remarks at the Pre-session, Dr. HAYASHI addressed disaster resilience to overcome possible national catastrophic crisis disasters within 30 years and stressed the importance of mobilizing Online Synthesis System (OSS), an information/knowledge base of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science and “on-site” facilitators to solve local problems using OSS.

Ms. Mami MIZUTORI, SRSG for DRR, gave a keynote speech in which she expressed her support for ideas of Japan NC; OSS and Facilitators. Then came the presentations by NC members on OSS and Facilitators including a good practice in Myanmar. This was followed by a panel discussion with prominent IRDR figures and DRR experts who came to the conclusion that the science communities would be benefitted by OSS and Facilitators to tackle with the new complex, cascading, and systemic risks at global level.

Dr. HAYASHI concluded the pre-session with a proposal of establishing a new ICoE-Japan（International Center of Excellence）to promote coherence on a more global scale.