Workshop on governance capacity and natural disasters
The Workshop on Governance Capacity and Natural Disasters: Enhancing Preparedness, Response and Rebuilding will be organized by East-West Center in partnership with the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and United Nations University to be held from 26 – 28 August 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii. This workshop brings theoretical and practical expertise to address how governance mechanisms can be enhanced to address natural disasters. It engages leading experts on governance and natural disasters. The workshop will build on the successes and failures derived from past experiences towards better mitigating and recovering from future disasters.
During the first day, the participants will present country experiences, and identify best practices and emerging issues dealing with governance capacity and disaster management. The discussion will be holistic and focus on governance capacity at multi-levels and various phases of disaster management.
On the second day, an outline of the book proposal submitted to the Routledge will be presented. The proposal will include aims, key topics and book chapters and relevance of the book to bridge gap between theory and practice. The focus of the book is on sub-national and local level approaches, programs and cases of urban governance.
On the third day, the trans-boundary collection of experiences will form the basis for recommending governance policy, which – without being over-ambitious and one-size-fits-all. Specifically, the following dimensions of governance will be examined:
- development of an integrated national and/or regional urban policy framework for disaster management and effective mechanisms to coordinate disaster response;
- decentralization of functions and resources to regional and local units of government;
- political, financial and administrative accountability; adoption of codes, strengthening oversight institutions and monitoring;
- transparency, clarity of procedures, access to information, reporting, feedback;
- regulatory frameworks for community engagement in disaster mitigation, recovery and building resilience; joint initiatives to mobilize resources and public support to provide services to citizens, affected by disasters;
- building community resilience through participation of individuals, groups and organizations at the local and community levels in policymaking and program implementation.