Together We Stand

[ 150 ] action.” 1 This type of thinking is important for improving the quality of humanitarian assistance. In order to reduce the number of prolonged or recurrent crises and to create sustainable mechanisms for the protection of people’s lives and dignity, it is vital to promote local governments’ and communities’ efforts toward self-reliance. Japan has devoted much effort to developing human resources, and provides mid and long-term assistance to this end, including technical coopera- tion for community capacity-building and the training of officials. As an example of regional cooperation, Japan introduced communications equipment to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), which is an intergovernmental organization aiming to facilitate cooperation among ASEANmember states for disaster response and disaster risk reduction, thereby improving information sharing between the AHA Centre and ASEAN countries. Japan is also assist- ing with the construction of a system to provide emergency stockpiles and to manage and transport these supplies, which contribute to strengthening the capacity of the AHA Centre. Such assistance for regional mechanisms is useful in terms of promoting the efficiency of humanitarian assistance. A wide range of efforts are necessary to make society as a whole more resilient to natural disasters, which includes prepar- ing against their inevitable occurrence in order to mitigate and minimize the damages incurred. In this connection, Japan hosted the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in March 2015. With the participation of 185 member states, the conference saw the adoption by consen- sus of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Sendai Declaration. As presented in the Sendai Cooperation Initiative for Disaster Risk Reduction as well as in the Sendai Framework, Japan attaches particular importance to prior invest- ment in disaster risk reduction from a long-term perspective, the implementation of ‘Build Back Better’ and collaboration between central governments and various actors. In particular, it is impor- tant, when faced with recurring crises, not simply to return to the same situation that existed prior to a disaster, but to overcome vulnerabilities based on the lessons learned from each previous disaster and to reconstruct towards a more disaster-resilient society. This is the essence of Build Back Better. In this regard, it is crucial that countries and regions alike take both ‘hard’ structural measures such as infrastructural reinforcements and ‘soft’ non-structural measures such as main- streaming disaster risk reduction in their development policies and project planning, introducing disaster risk education and building communities resilient to disasters. For example, as we saw in the case of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, thanks to routine evacuation drills and widespread education about disaster risk reduction, many elementary and junior high school students were able to safely evacuate before the tsunami struck, which saved many lives. This proves that educating and preparing people can be an extremely effective and inexpensive way to reduce casualties from natural disasters. Image: Japan International Cooperation Agency A child receives a medical examination by the JDR Medical Team Image: World Food Programme A family receiving food assistance, an essential measure in disaster-affected areas Refugee children play in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) playroom at the Khalda registration centre in Jordan Image: UNHCR/J. Kohler T ogether W e S tand