His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince of Japan, attended the opening ceremony of the three-day conference which brought together nearly 400 attendees from 37 countries.
In his keynote speech, ICSU President Gordon McBean outlined ICSU’s role coordinating the global Science and Technology community through its programme IRDR, and highlighted the need to strengthen coordination and cooperation across scientific and research organizations, and institutions and networks currently delivering scientific information on disaster risk reduction, and to connect them to policy-makers and practitioners.
This approach, called the Science and Technology Partnership for DRR, was proposed by the Science & Technology Major Group led by ICSU/IRDR during the preparatory process for the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, which will be held in Sendai, Japan, from 14-18 March 2015. It is a four-part strategy which includes synthesis of the knowledge, assessment, monitoring and review.
Presentations and discussions during the three days of the conference provided input into the revision of the Tokyo Statement and draft Tokyo Action Agenda presented on January 16.
The Tokyo statement calls for:
- More awareness on the part of policymakers and practitioners of the latest scientific knowledge on disasters
- Greater empowerment of national platforms to incorporate science and technology into real practice
- The more important role for science in disaster risk reduction through the development of collaborative frameworks with Earth environmental sciences and global Earth observations, thus promoting inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches for human well-being
The S&T Major Group will continue to push for a strong involvement of science in the build-up to the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March.
Source: ICSU news