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The First Lady of Japan, Her Excellency Madame Akie Abe gave
the keynote address at the High-Level Symposium on Coastal
Resilience, on Thursday, September 25th at the Ford
Foundation. This special event, held in the margins of the
69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, was
hosted by R3ADY Asia-Pacific, in collaboration with the
US-Japan Council and the Global Partnerships Forum. R3ADY
Asia-Pacific (formerly APDR3, the Asia Pacific Disaster Risk
Reduction and Resilience Network) was launched by Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 at the APEC Summit in
Honolulu. Its mission is to reduce the risk of natural
disasters and build resilient communities and economies
through strategic and innovative partnerships.
The Symposium brought together international experts on
coastal resilience, who shared their experiences and
provided valuable new insights and ideas on coastal
protection, including strategies to mitigate the dangerous
effects of natural disasters, in terms of both economic and
human cost.
R3ADY Asia-Pacific, the Global Partnerships Forum, the
U.S.-Japan Council and the Ford Foundation were honored to
have Her Excellency Madam Akie Abe, First Lady of Japan,
share her views about the challenges faced by coastal
communities, especially in Japan.
Mr. Dan Zarrilli, Director of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
Office of Recovery and Resilience, provided New York City’s
context and his leadership role in implementing A Stronger,
More Resilient New York. He explained the City’s efforts to
improve resiliency by strengthening coastal protections,
upgrading buildings, improving infrastructure, and making
neighborhoods safer and more vibrant, especially following
Hurricane Sandy. Mr. Zarrilli also serves as the Acting
Director of the Office of Long-Term Planning and
Sustainability.
Ms. Irene Hirano Inouye, President of the U.S.-Japan
Council, and Chair of R3ADY Asia-Pacific Advisory Council,
in her welcoming remarks, and introducing Madame Abe,
focused on her goal of building strong people-to-people
connections in order to form partnerships that will lead to
innovative solutions.
Madame Abe elegantly explained her special connection to the
sea and land, and the need for harmony with nature - “With
the natural disaster that happened in Japan, something that
can happen only every 1,000 years, and with that memory
still so graphic and vivid among us, it is not such an easy
job for our democracy to decide what we should build to
protect our children and grandchildren’s generation. As I
see it, seawalls come with a number of serious problems. A
tall seawall may make you feel safer, which is vitally
important, especially for the people who have experienced
insecurity or such an unspeakable disaster, yet on the other
hand, there are some who say we must also be able to see the
surface of the sea all the time so you can learn to
recognize any changes, and that, you can only develop such
sense by looking at the sea. Ironically, seawalls will make
the sea invisible and its citizens rather careless.”
The Symposium benefitted from the presence of a number of
international leaders, including H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni,
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Foreign Relations, and former Foreign Minister of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh, who emphasized both the
progress made by her nation and the rest of the world, and
at the same time recognized that much still needs to be done
to ensure the world’s coastal population is protected.
H.E. Mr. Stuart Beck, Ambassador for Oceans and Seas for the
Republic of Palau, commented on the degradation and
deterioration of the world’s oceans, pointing out that 90%
of the fish mass, which existed in 1900, is no longer in
existence.
Mr. Gary Fowlie, Director of the International
Telecommunication Union’s New York Office, emphasized the
power of mobile technology, which can be instrumental in not
only increasing information dissemination, but also as a
concrete method of saving lives.
Mr. Nikhil Chandavarkar, Chief of Communication and Outreach
for the Division of Sustainable Development at the United
Nations, briefed participants about the excellent progress
made at the SIDS Conference in Samoa in early September,
highlighting that more than 400 partnerships were launched.
The High-Level Symposium was also honored to have Ms.
Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the United
Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, who
gave a Special Address on the UN’s leadership role in
addressing disaster challenges in a sustainable manner. She
mentioned the valuable inter-governmental dialogues, led by
her office, the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction
(UNISDR), which will inform the process for the World
Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) that will take
place in Sendai, Japan in March 2015. Ms. Wahlström
emphasized the need to for innovative collaboration, and
congratulated R3ADY Asia-Pacific for
supporting the UN’s efforts.
Sharing his insights on the private sector's contribution to
disaster risk reduction, Mr. Georg Kell, Executive Director
of the UN Global Compact, stated that, "There is also some
good news in the making: more and more companies, thanks
also to the financial crisis, are realizing that long term
value and safeguarding creation depends increasingly on
environmental stewardship, and here coastal areas are key.
There are investor groups coming forward now that
convincingly make the case, ‘look if you don’t integrate in
your planning today what the disaster tomorrow could be, you
are missing something important.’ And that thinking is
slowly, but quite impressively growing.”
The Symposium was honored to have a number of officials from
the U.S. Government and representatives from civil society
and the private sector, who shared their perspective on the
critical need to address coastal resilience.
Mr. Timothy W. Manning, Deputy Administrator for Protection
and National Preparedness at the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), drew on his vast experience,
including following Super Storm Sandy, to highlight several
initiatives that will serve to lessen the tragic impact of
future natural disasters.
Mr. Luigi Piantadosi, Vice President of International
Operations for Finmeccanica, stressed the capability of
satellites to help with disaster management and mitigation,
by breaking through the often-obscuring cloud cover.
Mr. Mark Tercek, President of The Nature Conservancy,
highlighted the benefits of green infrastructure such as
mangroves and oyster reefs, which last longer than
conventional seawalls and are effectively appreciating
assets, to minimize the damage of storms, specifically
citing Hurricane Katrina.
Dr. Holly A. Bamford, Assistant Administrator of the
National Ocean Service at the National Oceanic and
Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), reinforced this point by
citing the critical role that large and dense mangrove tree
fields played during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, acting
as a natural barrier for parts of the coast, and also
catching large debris and slowing down seawater.
The panel was elegantly moderated by Ms. Jennifer Field,
Director of Social Impact at GLG, the largest peer-to-peer
learning platform, who stressed the importance of a
multi-sector approach to addressing coastal resilience.
Mr. Parker Liautaud, Fellow at the Yale Climate & Energy
Institute and Polar Explorer, contributed enlightening
remarks that were captured on video.
The event was the brainchild of Ms. Jainey K. Bavishi,
Executive Director of R3ADY Asia-Pacific, and would not have
been possible without her passion and dedication. She
thanked all of the participants for their role in this
important conversation, and looked forward to building on
the
momentum of the Symposium.
Other VIP attendees included: H.E. Xavier Prens, Minister
Plenipotentiary of Curacao, and Ms. Bahia Tahzib-Lie,
Special Envoy for UN Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands.
We are very grateful to Mr. Gerard Mc Keon and his team at Black
Tie Magazine
for the media outreach support for the High-Level Symposium.
For the detailed program, please click
here.
For additional information, please feel free to reach out
to:
Laura Cienkowski
LauraCienkowski@partnerships.org
or
Nora Westcott
NoraWestcott@partnerships.org
Global Partnership
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