Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2010
(5) Disaster Risk Reduction and Post-Disaster Reconstruction
Disasters caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, floods, and mudslides which occur frequently in countries around the world, lead to the extensive loss of human life and property, and have a serious impact on economic and social systems overall. In particular, in developing countries that are vulnerable to disasters, where impoverished people are often affected and become disaster refugees, prolonged secondary damages such as the deterioration of sanitary conditions and food shortages are major problems.
<Japan’s Efforts>
Japan utilizes its advanced expertise and technology acquired through past experiences with disasters and proactively provides support in the areas of disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction, as well as emergency assistance. At the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe in 2005, the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005 – 2015 was adopted as a basic guideline for disaster risk reduction activities in the international community. Japan promotes its worldwide implementation in cooperation with the United Nations and so forth.
At the conference, Japan announced its Initiative for Disaster Reduction through ODA, which represents Japan’s basic policies regarding cooperation for disaster risk reduction through official aid. Japan expressed its intent to continue to actively support the self-help efforts by developing countries toward building a disaster-resilient society through institution building, human resource development, development of economic and social infrastructure, and other measures.
●Pakistan: Project for Strengthening of Flood Risk Management in Lai Nullah Basin
Flood damage from the overflowing of the Lai Nullah River is growing more severe by the year in the city of Rawalpindi, which is adjacent to Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad. Therefore, Japan clarified the challenges for the entire basin through development project study-style technical cooperation, and set in place a flood forecasting and warning system that was urgently needed through grant aid. In addition, Japan also provided support for improving the accuracy of flood predictions and carried out disaster drills through technical cooperation, thereby striving to improve the capacity of the relevant agencies for the sake of issuing appropriate warnings and reducing flood damage. In order to extend the results of this all around the country in the future, the Government of Pakistan has requested that Japan develop a disaster prevention structure at the national level capable of handling disasters other than floods, and so new cooperation is being deployed.
●Japan Disaster Relief Team
Japan is prepared to swiftly extend emergency relief aid in response to requests from the government of a disaster-affected country or an international organization in case of a large-scale disaster overseas. There are four types of teams: Search and Rescue Teams to search for and rescue disaster victims; Medical Teams to provide medical services for disaster victims; Expert Teams to give advice and instruction on first aid measures, etc.; and SDF units to be dispatched when particularly necessary. As for material aid, Japan has emergency relief goods to be swiftly supplied to disaster-affected countries in case of a large-scale disaster. Specifically, warehouses located at four overseas points stockpile goods necessary for victims’ livelihoods, such as tents, power generators, and blankets.
In FY2009 a total of seven Japan Disaster Relief Teams were dispatched to Indonesia, Haiti, Chile, and Taiwan. Emergency relief goods were supplied in a total of 14 cases to 14 countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Chile.
A Japan Disaster Relief Team supplying emergency relief goods (Photo: Kenshiro Imamura/JICA)
●The Major Earthquake in Haiti
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on January 13, 2010 dealt a devastating blow to the capital city of Port-au-Prince, resulting in a massive disaster that left as many as more than 220,000 people dead or missing. Upon the request from the Government of Haiti, the Government of Japan decided to dispatch a Japan Disaster Relief Team and supply emergency relief goods by January 15. The Japan Self-Defense Force units that were dispatched in succession carried out activities by taking over the site of a medical team’s activities in the city of Leyogàn. Afterwards, a Japanese Red Cross Society medical team over the same site, and effective assistance was provided by carrying out public-private cooperation suited to the support needs.
● See Section 3. Assistance for Each Region, Latin America and the Caribbean regarding the support for Haiti.
● Collaboration with International Agencies
Japan provides cooperation for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery established in the World Bank in 2006. This facility aims at supporting efforts like improving capacity for disaster prevention planning, policy, as well as damage rehabilitation. Its targets are low and middle-income countries which are vulnerable to disasters.
Under the increasing recognition of the importance of disaster risk reduction, it was agreed in the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 to establish the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction to facilitate discussions on this issue, with participation from international organizations including the United Nations and the World Bank and their member countries. This led to the first meeting of the Global Platform in July 2007. Japan actively supports the activities of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN/ISDR), which assumes the role as the secretariat of this Global Platform. In October 2007, the Hyogo Office of the UN/ISDR opened.
The second meeting of the Global Platform was held in June 2009 with the participation of more than 1,800 people from 169 countries from around the world and about 300 international agencies, disaster prevention agencies, NGOs, and other such organizations. It was attended by the Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Relief Namiki Masayoshi as the representative from Japan. The secretary announced Japan’s policy of proactively working to address international disaster relief cooperation based upon Japan’s experience with enhancing and strengthening disaster countermeasures as a country frequently struck by earthquakes.
Five years have elapsed since the United Nations’ World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR), and so Japan is proactively working on a follow-up to the Hyogo Framework for Action, which serves as a basic guideline for disaster risk reduction activities in the international community, by making use of the forums provided by from the Global Platform meetings.