For Meeting of UNESCO Chairs in September 5-6
UNITWIN Network on Emergency preparedness and responses (704)established in 2005 at Waseda University, Tokyo (Japan).
Report by Prof. Dr. Toshio Obi Waseda University obi.waseda@gmail.com

Fields/Disciplines　　

Disaster Assessment, Innovation in ICT , Disaster education and training, Aging society, Information technology, Disaster reduction model

Objectives

To promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation activities in the field of Emergency Preparedness and Responses. Establishing university outreach aimed at public awareness by promoting the engagement of the media, sustained public education campaigns and public consultation. Facilitating link between parties including local and national government agencies, civil society and NGO. To provide advice and expertise to assist all countries, particularly the least developed.Helping members of the Network to promote community development and capacity building through education and training with new curricula, distance/e- learning and on the job training. Developing methods of research programs which aim at identifying, assessing and monitoring risks and vulnerabilities through inter-disciplinary and cross-sectorial approaches. Enhancing opportunities to develop sub-regional and regional cooperation networks based at the coordinating institution

Host Institution

• Waseda University (Japan),
• Chulalongkorn University (Thailand),
• University of Washington (USA)

• La Salle University (Philippines),
• Peking University (China),
• Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia),
• Academy of National Economy (Russia).
• Thammasat University (Thailand)

Highlighting Activities:

Last 3 years Management measures for dealing with benchmarking disaster reduction; Applications of mobile government for interactive communication in disaster issues:
Education for e-disaster management-Target groups: academia, government and business Geographical coverage: mainly Asia and the Pacific region Intended use of results: to find out the best practices and methodologies for communication for disaster preparedness and HRD training program.

Outcomes:

Since 2005, the UNITWIN Network has worked to provide assistance in looking for solutions to the various challenges of e-disaster education and to offer recommendations for the improvement of e-public safety implementation. The UNITWIN Network has mostly reached the objectives。Critical issue will be as follows: There are a lot of kinds of disasters such as earthquake, Typhoons, Cyber Terrorism not only in Japan but also worldwide. According to the lessons learned from some disasters in Japan such as 3.11 Tsunami, to prevent the damage of disasters, we have to establish the comprehensive programs .To manage the crisis we need to create the BCP. Complete communication infrastructure is another issue in order to share and process of information among government, municipalities and citizens via universities. The importance of the cooperation among stakeholders needs to be understood. It is not only a local revitalization but also is an upgrade of capacity building

Main activities for 2011-2013

2011

• May:Speaker at US government workshop on disaster communication in Washington DC
• Sept: Study tour from Thailand to Japan
• Oct: Organizer UNITWIN Conference on Disaster Reduction at La Salle Univ. In Manila
• Nov: Ppublishing the Book on Disaster and Aging society

2012

• March: Organizer, Symposium on ICT applications for Aging society in Tokyo
• May: Co-organizer, Japan-China-Korea seminar in Beijing
• May: Organizer, IAC Forum for ICT and Disaster in Moscow
• June: Expert participation UNDESA workshop on accessibility in Tokyo
• Sept: Organizer OECD-APEC-Waseda Joint Workshop on Silver ICT Innovation at Waseda University, Tokyo
• Sept - Jan.2013 University lecture series on aging and disaster at Waseda University

2013

• Jan: Distance learning Discussion between Peking University and Waseda Univ
• Feb: Speaker, APEC Economic Committee meeting in Jakarta
• May: Speaker, APEC TEL meeting in Bali
• June: Speaker, Global ICT Forum in India

Future Plan

• Long term: Establishment of e-disaster research and training infrastructures/platforms at the universities
• Expanding activities: research and education cooperation with ITU,APEC and IAC as UNESCO UNITWIN Program
• Broadening partnerships: consolidation of networking among partner universities
• Organizing the workshop.in Japan as lessons learnt from the best practices
• Continuing the lecture class series at Waseda University and distance education program with partners in Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia on disaster education since there will be big shortage of experts in this field.