ICSU ROLAC at Integration Workshop on Natural Hazards and Disasters
The workshop was organized by the ICSU Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (ICSU ROAP) and funded by a grant provided to ICSU by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The objective of the workshop was to develop a framework to harmonize the work on hazards and disaster risk reduction coordinated by ICSU at the global and at the regional levels. The Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program, co-sponsored by ICSU, ISSC and UNISDR, as well as the three ICSU Regional Offices each had developed Science Plans on Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction and started their implementation.
About 40 scientists and representatives from IRDR as well as from the ICSU Global and Regional Offices, involved in the development and implementation of these Science Plans, attended the workshop. Communalities and differences of the Science Plans were presented, and workshop participants discussed potential ways forward to integrate their implementation, as well as the coordination of funding proposals to be submitted to potential donors, into a common strategy under the umbrella of ICSU. Yet, it was stressed that regional characteristics and priority concerns should be taken into account in this global approach.
ICSU ROLAC was represented by Arturo J. Martínez, member of RCLAC, Manuel Limonta, Regional Director, and Kerstin Schmidt-Verkerk, Science Officer. Furthermore, scientists from Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela represented the LAC region. On the first day of the meeting, Arturo J. Martínez presented the ICSU ROLAC Science Plan “Understanding and Managing Risk Associated with Natural Hazards: A Comprehensive Scientific Approach for LAC” and Susana Adamo (Argentina, USA) presented the draft recommendations of the Regional Workshop "Disaster Risk Management in Latin America and the Caribbean: Towards a Project Plan for Integrating Science and Risk Management for the Region", which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 3-5 September, 2012.
