Ateneo participates in Capacity Building Initiative for Resilience Education in Asia

March 14, 2018
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The International Workshop was funded by the European Union
 
Ateneo de Manila University scientists attended the International Workshop on Multi-hazard Early Warning and Resilience Building in Coastal Communities on March 5-10, 2018 hosted by the University of Peradeniya, Kandy, Sri Lanka. Ateneo representatives presented their experiences on their engagements with socio-economic actors in enhancing disaster resilience. Mrs. Abigail Marie Favis, Program Manager of Campus Sustainability of the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability (AIS) and faculty member of the Department of Environmental Science (ES) presented the various initiatives of AIS in tackling sustainable development and disaster preparedness both in- and off-campus through engagement with students, communities, government and business entities. Mr. Raymond Rodolfo, also a faculty member of the ES Department, discussed the geo-hazard assessment for a community-based disaster risk reduction management program from his engagements with coastal communities in Tacloban and Manila. Dr. Charlotte Kendra Gotangco, Chairperson of the ES Department and Program Manager of Climate Change and Disaster Risk of AIS, and Dr. Noralene Uy, project manager of the Coastal Cities at Risk Project (Part 2) led by Dr. Emma Porio of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology presented their recently-funded project on Coastal Cities at Risk in the Philippines (CCAR), which aims to generate knowledge that will eventually be transferred to multi-stakeholders. Dr. Crisanto Lopez, Chairperson of the Department of Biology, and Dr. Gotangco also co-facilitated the training activity on the work package that deals with the engagement with socio-economic actors.

Ateneo scientists in the International Workshop on Multi-hazard Early Warning and Resilience Building in Coastal Communities hosted by the University of Peradeniya, Kandy, Sri Linka from 5th to 10th of March 2018. Left to right: Dr. Crisanto Lopez, Mrs. Abigail Marie Favis, Mr. Raymond Rodolfo, Dr. Noralene Uy, Dr. Charlotte Kendra Gotangco, Ms. Carlie Labaria, and Ms. Jairus Carmela Josol.

The international workshop is part of a three-year project entitled CApacity Building in Asia for Resilience EducaTion (CABARET), which is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme. CABARET aims to foster regional cooperation for more effective multi-hazard early warning and increased disaster resilience among coastal communities by supporting joint initiatives and sharing of good practices among Higher Education Institutes and other socio-economic actors in Asia and Europe. It is led by the Global Disaster Resilience Centre of the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom. Project partners come from 14 European and Asian higher education institutions from Bulgaria, Indonesia, Latvia, the Maldives, Malta, Myanmar, the Philippines, Spain, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Charlotte Kendra Gotangco (first person from left, first row), Dr. Crisanto Lopez (second person from left, first row) and Ms. Jairus Carmela Josol (second person from left, second row), together with the other representatives of the European and Asian Higher Education Institutes, attended the Second Steering Committee Meeting of the CABARET project held at IH Cantabria Headquarters in Santander, Spain from 27th to 29th September 2017.

Aside from their presentations during the workshop, the Ateneo scientists also actively participated in various sandpits that aimed to discuss innovative ideas on how to address the gaps in disaster resilience capacity of each of the partner countries. Dr. Gotangco, Dr. Lopez, and Mrs. Favis spearheaded a sandpit activity on Enhancing Disaster Resilience Education in Asia. The sandpit aimed to determine how each of the partner universities under the CABARET programme can help each other in terms of formal and non-formal education modalities. Ms. Carlie Labaria (Ateneo representative to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) and Ms. Jairus Carmela Josol (Ateneo CABARET project research assistant and faculty of the ES Department) participated in the sandpit on the study of the technical, legal and socio-cultural complexities involved in communicating coastal-based multi-hazard early warning to jurisdictional agencies and response partners. Dr. Uy shared her expertise in the sandpit on local government and risk mapping at local level, while Mr. Rodolfo joined the sandpit discussion on the uptake and implementation policies on Public Private Partnership (PPPs) to stimulate private sector engagement and investment for Multi-Hazard Early Warning (MHEW) Systems for Coastal Resilience in Asia.

The Steering Committee members represented the 14 European and Asian Higher Education Institutes included in the CABARET Project during the kick-off meeting held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 27th to 30th 2017.

The Ateneo de Manila University, one of the partner universities in the CABARET consortium, is represented by Dr. Gotangco and Dr. Lopez. They are members of the Steering Committee that plans and implements the various work packages of the CABARET project. They have attended the project kick-off meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka in March 2016 and the second steering committee meeting in Santander, Spain in October 2017. The Ateneo, together with the Social Development Center of De La Salle University, the other CABARET Philippine partner university, is preparing for the fifth Steering Committee meeting which will be held in the Philippines sometime in March 2019.