Grant for Global Sustainability Project: Enhancing the Urban Disaster Resilience of Kathmandu and Yangon Through Local Participatory Platform Activities

Abstract

Catastrophic disasters have been occurring frequently all over the world in recent years, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Urban disaster risk is also on the rise due to rapid urban growth and due to vulnerable buildings and infrastructure. Hence, the enhancement of urban resilience against disasters is one of the urgent and important global issues. A Grant for Global Sustainability (GGS) Project was implemented by the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES) of Kyoto University in the pilot cities of Kathmandu, Nepal, Yangon, and Myanmar, aiming to enhance the resilience of the two cities against disasters through capacity building of local stakeholders. Kathmandu tackled earthquake risk while Yangon tackled earthquake, cyclone, and fire risks. The two cities established a local platform where stakeholders can work together to understand and assess the disaster risk of the city, estimate probable disaster damages, propose policies, and make action plans. In order to facilitate these activities, local counterpart organizations were selected from local governments, universities, and NGOs. In addition, the local universities and NGOs and GSGES conducted several joint research on urban seismic risk assessment; wind vulnerability; disaster education; risk perception and housing safety; and social fairness of action plans and policies to support the enhancement of urban disaster resilience. The goals of this project were to contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to attain effective and robust science–policy interfaces at the local level, and to contribute to the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. The pilot cities are expected to transfer their experiences to other cities in their country and in neighboring countries. In order to disseminate the findings of the project and exchange information, international conferences were held twice, one at the beginning and another at the end of the three-year project.