IRDR National Committees (NCs) and Regional Committees (RCs) support and supplement IRDR’s research initiatives, and help to establish or further develop crucial links between national disaster risk reduction programmes and activities within an international framework. NCs and RCs will help foster the much-needed interdisciplinary approach to disaster risk reduction within national scientific and policy-making communities, and can serve as important national focal points between disciplinary scientific unions and associations.

The First Consultative Forum of IRDR National Committees was held on 11-12 November 2014 at Wellcome Trust, London, UK, hosted by UKCDS. For information on the meeting and for access to the presentations given, please visit: IRDR’s consultative meeting of National and Regional Committees concludes in UK

Please review the Terms of Reference governing NCs and RCs within the IRDR programme. If you have any questions send us an email at connect@irdrinternational.org.

 

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Responsibilities of IRDR NCs/RCs

In support of the IRDR Science Plan and the IRDR Scientific Committee, IRDR National and Regional Committee will undertake the following activities:

• Foster and support participation in IRDR on the part of institutions and individual scientists.

• Serve as the national or regional focal point for IRDR.

• Foster networking and collaboration among domestic, regional and international disaster risk reduction science and technology activities.

• Improve science and technology knowledge and considerations of disaster risk reduction science technology in planning, policies and programmes domestically, regionally and internationally.

• Support efforts to update and report on national and international disaster risk reduction activities aligned with the Hyogo Framework of Action’s strategic priorities, with emphasis on the science and technology activities.

• Provide science and technology advice to policy-makers, taking into consideration national, regional and international disaster risk reduction initiatives.

• Assist in fundraising for IRDR activities and projects.

To this end, both NCs and RCs are encouraged to include representatives from the following key groups: active scientists from the natural, social, health, and engineering sciences, policy makers, and managers of national disaster risk reduction programmes.

Current NCs

Ten NCs have been established to date:

1.  IRDR Australia
Home Institution: Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNH CRC)

2.  IRDR Canada
Home Institution: Science and Technology Working Group, Canada’s Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

3.  IRDR China
Home Institution: China Association for Science and Technology (CAST)

4.  IRDR Colombia
Home Institution: National Committee of Disaster Risk Knowledge, National Unit for Disaster Risk Management of the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia (Unidad Nacional de Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres, UNGRD)

5.  IRDR France
Home Institution: Scientific Council, Association Française Pour la Prevention des Catastrophes Naturelles (AFPCN)

6.  IRDR Germany
Home Institution: German Committee for Disaster Reduction (Deutsches Komitee Katastrophenvorsorge e.V. – DKKV)

7. IRDR Iran
Home Institution: International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES)
*IRDR Iran is a group of eight Iranian research institutes and scientific associations. These are the:

1. International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) – coordinating institute for IRDR Iran
2. Iranian Earthquake Engineering Association (IEEA)
3. Disaster Management Research Institute of Shakhesh Pajouh (DMRISP)
4. Iranian Sociological Association (ISA)
5. Water Research Institute (WRI)
6. Iranian Water Resource Association (IR-WRA)
7. Disaster and Emergency Health Department at Tehran University of Medical Science
8. Tehran Disaster Management and Mitigation Organization (TDMMO)

8.  IRDR Japan
Home Institution: Science Council of Japan (SCJ)

9.  IRDR New Zealand
Home Institution: Natural Hazards Research Platform (NHRP)

10.  *IRDR the USA
Home Institution: Natural Hazards Center (NHC), Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
*IRDR the USA is a ‘centre of centres’ taking advantage of the research capacities of university-based centres that specialise in different aspects of hazards and disasters and that represent diverse disciplines.

11.  IRDR Indonesia
Home Institution: Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI)

12.  IRDR the Republic of Korea
Home Institution: National Disaster Management Research Institute (NDMI) in Ministry of the Interior and Safety

13.  IRDR Nepal
Home Institution: National Reconstruction Authority of Nepal

Current RC

IRDR welcomed its first RC in 2013, in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, through the newly formed ICSU Regional Office for Latin America and Caribbean (ICSU-ROLAC) Scientific Steering Committee for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk in LAC.

(Last updated  May 2018)