CWS Japan team members at the World Bosai Forum. Photo: CWS
As part of Japan CSO Coalition for Disaster Risk Reduction Secretariat, CWS Japan team members recently joined the World Bosai Forum, which is a gathering modeled on the Davos World Economic Forum. The team’s main forum engagement was to convene a panel to highlight the idea of Multisector Initiative for Research, Action, and Impact. In addition to JCC-DRR, represented by CWS Japan Country Representative Takeshi Komino, other panelists represented the Asian Disaster Risk Reduction Network, the International Center for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Yahoo Japan and Kyoto University.
The panelists were joined by 40-plus disaster risk reduction colleagues from around the work to again face the fact that today’s unrelenting increase in disasters and resulting humanitarian crises is a huge challenge for humanity wherein ‘business as usual’ is not enough. Rather, it was asserted that it is imperative now more than ever to address increasing natural disaster in ever more holistic and innovative ways. The Sendai Framework for DRR and UN Sustainable Development Goals were specifically cited as reference points, and it was noted that social innovation in humanitarian work is imperative to ensure impact that is directly felt by the people affected by natural disaster.
To understand what kinds of impact (response) people expect, it was agreed that innovative solutions need to be codesigned from the inception phase through innovations like the Multisector Initiative for Research, Action, and Impact to unite researchers, practitioners – including civil society networks rooted in at-risk and affected communities – and private sector actors to co-create solutions for disaster response based on a solid understanding of root causes and realities.
(For more information please contact t.komino@cwsjapan.org )