JICA, Ateneo, and OCD share how Japan and Philippines address Disaster Risk Reduction

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) hosted the 5th JICA Chair Lecture on September 5, 2024 to present “Japan’s experiences and strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience”.

The JICA Chair Program is an endeavor to expand opportunies to share Japan’s modernization process to partner countries, like the Philippines, wherein lessons learned in the field of politics, public administration and social development among others, can be valuable references to find solutions to common issues and challenges. In the Philippines, JICA has currently partnered with ADMU to conduct the lecture series wherein renowned Professors or authorities from Japan are invited to give lectures and prominent personalities from the Government and Academe serve as discussants.

Special Appointed Professor NISHIKAWA Satoru from Tohoku University and JICA Senior Advisor on Disaster Risk Reduction shared and discussed Japan’s history of disasters, the evolution of DRR framework and policies based on lessons learned from the disasters and the pre-disaster investments that Japan’s continues to undertake in order to mitigate risks.

The efforts of the Government of the Philippines such as adopting comprehensive infrastructure planning, empowering local governments to respond to disasters by formulating their DRR plans, implementing pre-disaster investments and the plan to update the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction were shared by Asec. Bernardo Rafaelito R. Alejandro IV, Deputy Administrator for Administration and Education of the Office of Civil Defense.

The impact of development on climate and disaster risks, the sustainable investments that can contribute to community resilience and the importance of collaboration in producing science-based risk-informed, resilience driven policies, strategies and programs were emphasized by Professor Emma E. Porio from ADMU.

JICA Chief Representative SAKAMOTO Takema highlighted JICA’s strengths in the DRR sector which are underpinned by its long history and significant achievements of cooperation with the Philippine Government and communities in the wide-ranging areas, such as resilient infrastructure, flood control, and earthquake/volcano/extreme weather monitoring/forecasting and early warning system. SAKAMOTO depicted the seamless cooperation through various schemes involving both hard and soft components in every phase of DRR, even in the preventive phase, inclusive awareness development including precautionary education, and the introduction of Japanese innovative technologies as core elements of JICA’s cooperation in DRR. He further emphasized JICA’s readiness to contribute to the upcoming Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on DRR in October that will be hosted by the Philippine Government by sharing its good practices and lessons learned on DRR.

The lecture also provided a venue for the 300 online and onsite participants composed of students and professionals alike, to have a broader understanding of the DRR sector. DRR must be a multi-stakeholder inclusive endeavor that requires continuous efforts and commitments to be successful and sustainable. Given that Japan and the Philippines are common disaster-prone countries, JICA reaffirms its strong commitment to collaborate with the Philippine Government and communities in the shared goal to make the country more resilient to disasters.