Annual Report2009

SEEDS ASIA

SEEDS Asia

SEEDS Asia takes an integrated and interlinked approach to disaster management and environmental conservation within the overall umbrella of human security, to ensure safer communities in the Asia Pacific region.

SEEDS Asia was registered officially as a specified non profit organizationSEEDS Asia was registered officially as a specified non-profit organization in Japan in September 2006.

Keywords

Human security

Disaster management and development

Environmental management

Asia and the PacificAsia and the Pacific

Mandate

Enhancing safety and sustainability of people and communities in the Asia Pacific region to cope with natural disasters and environmental problemsproblems

www.seedsasia.org2

Organizational Characteristics

SEEDS Asia

Organizational Characteristics Consists of young, multinational, and experienced

professionals in the field of disaster, environment and development

Multi-disciplinary approach to disaster and environmental management

Convergence of humanitarian “heart” and development “brain” Intensive focus in countries in the Asia Pacific region Registered in Japan, and working in a multicultural

environment Sensitive to local socio-economic, cultural, political contexts Maximizes local knowledge and expertise to provide locally

applicable solutionsB ild t h t k d t l t t ith l l Builds on a strong human network and mutual trust with local counterparts

Advocates local ownership of the problem and its solution Synergizes research, education, and implementation Adopts sustainable and innovative approaches

Fields of Expertise Community based disaster risk management Disaster and environmental education and learning Community based climate change adaptation Urban risk: environment and disasters Urban risk: environment and disasters

Solid waste management Water resource management

Human security and sustainable development Poverty reduction and disaster management Research and policy dialogue on disaster and environmental

management g

www.seedsasia.org 3

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

SEEDS Asia

Training for Teachers on School Disaster Education Project (completed)Response to disaster : Java Earthquake of 2006Location: Bantul District, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Supported by the Japan Platform )

Since the 2006 Java earthquake, a number of domestic and international organizations carried outrelief activities in various fields. After the quick relief and early recovery phase, many organizationsstarted to work on a school safety education project in order to disseminate the importance of schoolstarted to work on a school safety education project in order to disseminate the importance of schoolsafety education and to protect the life of children in disaster prone areas.

SEEDS Asia, based on our survey, thinks that the gap between trainings for educational field staffon disaster management and practical teaching methods towards children implemented by teachersseems to be one of the causes for lack of wide spread school safety education.

T l th bl th ti iti b l h l d i d t di i t th i t fTo resolve the problem, three activities below has planned in order to disseminate the importance ofschool safety education, through which teachers can protect vulnerable children from naturaldisasters.

1. Training for school teachers

2. Preparation of a teachers' handbook on school safety education

3. Workshops for awareness raising towards school safety education

In total, 43 teachers were trained during the project in three model schools. A final workshop washeld in September 2009, inviting city officials from the education department and teachers of otherelementary schools. Teachers in the model schools dramatically changed their attitude toward theDRR programs during the project and they have become trainers for other school teachers on DRRprograms. One of the school also decided to take DRR programs in annual school curriculum.

www.seedsasia.org

Teacher’s lecture about DRRFinal Workshop

Handbook of DRR

4

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

Assistance to cyclone affectees in Myanmar (on-going)

SEEDS Asia

y y ( g g)Response to Disaster: Cyclone Nargis of 2008Location: Yangon and Ayeyarwady Division, Myanmar (Supported by Church World Service)

Myanmar has high risk of cyclone, earthquake and tsunami and storm surge. When the Cyclone Nargisstruck Myanmar, the community experienced huge loss of lives as well as properties including publicbuildings such as schools and community buildings, that could have been less if the communities were more aware of the risks of such disasters, how to respond to them and took precautious measures.

School Safety projectWith the aim to make local schools safer at the time of disasters, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)programs for schools were conducted in Dalla and Labutta township in Ayeyarwady Division with ourlocal counterpart, Mingalar Myanmar and Metta Development Foundation. Through needs assessmentand subsequent focus group discussion with community members, it is found that school facilities andsurrounding environment should be upgraded in order to reduce disaster risk. As demonstration project,construction work in each of the project sites to improve the school road, fences and electricity wereimplemented. Also, SEEDS Asia carried out DRR education programs such as town watching and safetymap making for awareness raising of local people.

Mobile Knowledge Resource Center (MKRC)

School road (before construction) School road (after construction)

To disseminate the DRR knowledge into wider and most affectedarea of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, Mobile Knowledge ResourceCenter (MKRC) was developed and DRR training utilizing theMKRC was conducted in Yangon and Ayeyarwady Division.In MKRC the disaster reduction models, posters and videos wereinstalled in a truck and traveled to 28 towns of the stricken areasand the training workshop for disaster risk reduction includingg p gtown-watching and sandbag making were conducted for 2,778local community members, school teachers/children and masons.To reach the delta region, Water Knowledge Resource Center(WKRC), installed on a boat, is being developed and its openingis planned on May 2010.

www.seedsasia.org

Mobile Knowledge Resource Center

5

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

SEEDS Asia

School Disaster Education Project in Myanmar (on-going)Response to Disaster: Cyclone Nargis of 2008Location: Dedaye Township, Ayeyarwady Division, Myanmar (Supported by Japan Platform）

Myanmar is one of most disaster prone countries in Asia, however, awareness of local people ondisaster risk reduction (DRR) is quite low due to limited information on DRR. This is still the casedisaster risk reduction (DRR) is quite low due to limited information on DRR. This is still the caseeven after the Cyclone Nargis hit the country in 2008.

The project objective is to improve a capacity of communities in disaster risk reduction in Dedayetownship, Ayarwardy Division through DRR training for local NGO staffs, school teachers, ChangeAgents (CA) and local counterparts. To achieve the above objectives, SEEDS Asia is conductingfollowing activities: (1) establish action plans of school safety program in selected two schools, (2)conduct disaster risk reduction trainings for the local NGO staff, school teachers, CA andcounterparts and (3) develop and publish a training module for school safety and disaster riskcounterparts, and (3) develop and publish a training module for school safety and disaster riskreduction.

From the initial survey in the project site, it was found that two selected model schools facedproblems such as shortages of drinking water, school fence, library and dispensary. SEEDS Asia andMingalar Myanmar, our counterpart organization, visited the two schools in Dedaye township inNovember 2009 to organize a disaster risk reduction (DRR) workshop. In the workshop the basicconcepts of DRR was explained and discussion session was held with teachers, members of PTAand people of community organization.

In January 2010, a workshop on `Training of Trainers’ for school safety on Disaster Risk Reductionwas conducted and around 50 people participated from two site villages. During the workshop,programs such as town watching, emergency bag making, disaster newspaper reading, first aid andessay writing were carried out. In February 2010 another set of trainings on evacuation drills,Newspaper making and composing songs were also carried out.

www.seedsasia.org

First Aid workshopParticipants discussed in Focus Group Discussion

6

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

SEEDS Asia

School Centered Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) (on-going)Response to disaster: Sumatra earthquake of 2009Location:Padang and Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia

Padang, Indonesia and its surrounding areas were seriously affected by the Sumatra Earthquake in 2009. As a part of JICA’s Urgent Project for Reconstruction of Schools Considering QuakeResistance and Community Based Disaster Risk Management, SEEDS Asia started to carry out y g yCBDRM project focusing on schools with local counterpart YEU and in partnership with OYO International and SNS.

In February 2010, needs assessment was conducted in 11 target schools in Padang city andPadang Pariaman district. From the survey, teachers in the targeted schools were keen toparticipate in programs of school disaster education and also requested programs on trauma care.First training sessions on town watching and safety map making will be conducted from March 2010onwardsonwards.

Most of the school buildings were collapsed in SMPN25 Padang City

Students are still learning in temporary classrooms

www.seedsasia.org 7

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

SEEDS Asia

Capacity Building for School-Centered Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (on-going)

Location: Hai Chau district, Danang city, Vietnam （Supported by JICA）

On 10th of March, JICA grassroots partnership project titled, ‘Capacity Building for school centeredcommunity based disaster risk management in central Vietnam’ was initiated with Danang Universityof Technology (DUT), our local counterpart, and a new project office was set up in the university.

After SEEDS Asia staff and DUT members visited the Department of Education in Danang city, needsassessment survey was conducted in Vo Thi Sau elementary school in Hai Chau district in March 2010.From the assessment, it was clear that all interviewed teachers have interests in school disastereducation (SDE), and they were interested in SDE programs such as school hazard hunt (identify thehazardous areas in schools), disaster management games, evacuation drill and town watching (identifyhazardous and safe area in the community). Moreover, many teachers showed strong interest toconduct school disaster education in both regular curriculum and extra-curriculum. Based on theirinterests, SEEDS will conduct schools disaster education programs in the year 2010.

In addition, it was found from the survey that even though students receives lectures on mechanisms ofnatural hazards in regular classes, their knowledge level was insufficient; therefore, the importance ofSDE project was recognized.

The project was strongly supported by the Department of Education, Danang and training programs andcommunity based actvities will be conducted until March 2011.community based actvities will be conducted until March 2011.

www.seedsasia.org

Teachers answering questionnaire

8

Activities in 2009Programs on Capacity Building

SEEDS Asia

CBDRM project in Afghanistan（ joint project with CoAR） (completed)

Location: Faryab and Badghis province, Afghanistan

This project, aiming at reducing vulnerability toward disaster inFaryab province and Badghis province in Afghanistan, wasimplemented with an Afghan NGO Coordination of Afghanimplemented with an Afghan NGO Coordination of AfghanRelief (CoAR). The project saw the development of villagelevel DRM plans, gender sensitization, environmental problemsolving and information dissemination.

Capacity building project for DRR in Coastal community: Project SELAMAT (completed)L i Sh i i A ll h M ldi (S d b UNISDR)Location: Shaviyani Atoll, the Maldives (Supported by UNISDR)

Project SELAMAT targeted five islands in Shaviani atollcarried out since November 2007. The model projects includescomponents such as coastal bio-shields, nutritional model homegardens, community resource centers and community-basedsolid waste management to build resilient island communities.This project was completed in May 2009.p j p y

Training on Development of Contents on Disaster Risk Reduction for the Mass Media (completed)Location: Maldives (Supported by UNISDR)

Although Maldives experienced huge loss by the Indian OceanAlthough Maldives experienced huge loss by the Indian OceanTsunami in 2004, local people’s awareness on disaster risk wasstill quite low in Maldives. This is probably due to the low frequencyof disasters in the past.

As mass media such as TV and radios are most commoninformation sources in Maldives, training workshop for localmedia staffs were conducted in March 2009 and the pilot radioprograms titled “Heylamaa (meaning “wake up” in Dhivehi) wereprograms titled Heylamaa (meaning wake up in Dhivehi) weredeveloped by the training participants and aired during theproject period. The project was completed in May 2009.

www.seedsasia.org 9

Activities in 2009Study and Research Programs

SEEDS Asia

Research on Urban Risk Reduction (UNISDR’s Regional Task Force on Urban Risk Reduction)

SEEDS Asia contributed to research coordinated by UNISDR’s Regional Task Force on Urban Risk Reduction (RTF-URR) which was implemented with the purpose to investigate the trend of urban risks in Asia as well as how to cope with these risks. As a part of the research, current and past project contents were summarized and analyzed. Result of the analysis was published by Kyoto University and UNISDR (title: Reducing Urban Riskwas published by Kyoto University and UNISDR (title: Reducing Urban Risk in Asia) and the direction for the future urban risk management in Asia regions was drawn out.

For more information, please see: http://www.iedm.ges.kyoto-u.ac.jp/publi_e.htm

Knowledge Dissemination Programs

Recording at Radio FM YY

SEEDS Asia contributed to FM YY’s radio broadcasting program, “NPO in Love Vol.2”, and lk d b h j f SEEDS A i P j i h M ldi d I d italked about the projects of SEEDS Asia. Projects in the Maldives and Indonesia were

introduced as activities of the organization.This program was broadcasted on 16th May, 16:30 to17:00.

Activity Report in Maiko High School

Students of Maiko High School collected street donations in Kobeafter the Cyclone Nargis hit the Myanmar in 2008 and the schoolafter the Cyclone Nargis hit the Myanmar in 2008 and the schoolkindly donated the whole amount to SEEDS Asia’s School Safetyproject in Myanmar.

On 16 June 2009, SEEDS Asia visited Maiko High School toreport the initial trip by staff and report on the local situation afterthe Cyclone and briefed SEEDS’ planned project.

St d t th i ti ll li t d d k d ti b tStudents enthusiastically listened and asked questions aboutlocal culture, society and life in Myanmar, in addition to thesituation after Cyclone Nargis.

www.seedsasia.org10

Activities in 2009Knowledge Dissemination Programs

SEEDS Asia

Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP/DRR)

The second session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

(GP/DRR) was held in Geneva from 16 to 19th June 2009. In this

meeting, participants agreed to intensively implement obligations underthe Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). SEEDS Asia participated in thesession provided interventions to the discussion.

Symposium ‘Challenging the risks of climate change’

SEEDS Asia participated as a panelist in the symposium ‘Challenging the risks of climate change,’jointly organized by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tokyo and Kobe-Shimbunon 20th June 2009. SEEDS Asia illustrated the idea of ‘environmental conservation=disaster riskreduction’ from its project carried out in Maldives facing seawater level rise by climate change.

Preparatory Mission to Bangladesh for the international forum on Tornado DRR

In view of holding the ‘International Forum on Tornado Disaster Risk Reduction for Bangladesh’on December 2009 in Dhaka, a preparatory Mission was organized in August 2009. Senioradvisor of SEEDS Asia participated this session and visited the disaster stricken area and heardabout story of the sufferers. Tornado statistics alone show considerable losses and damages inthe past few decades in Bangladesh.

Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS 2009) in Singaporey ( ) g p

The 6th Annual meeting of the AOGS 2009 was held in Singapore from11th to15th August 2009 forpromoting geophysical science and public benefits for Asia and Oceania countries. Senior advisorof SEEDS Asia attended and made a presentation on the “Importance of Regional Initiativestowards Disaster Resilient Urban Areas in Asia” and introduced the role of the Asia Regional TaskForce on Urban Risk Reduction (RTF-URR). SEEDS Asia is a member of RTF-URR.

www.seedsasia.org11

Activities in 2009Knowledge Dissemination Programs

SEEDS Asia

CITYNET Congress 2009

‘The CITYNET Congress on “Harmonious Cities for our future’’was hosted by the mayor of the city of Yokohama and the presidentof CITYNET from 7thto11th September 2009. Senior advisor ofSEEDS Asia participated the meeting and CITYNET membersSEEDS Asia participated the meeting and CITYNET membersand partners reviewed the activities and identify the future directions.It also suggested the upcoming UN/ISDR campaign on ‘BuildingResilient Cities 2010-2011’.

Organization of ‘the International Forum on Tornado DRR for Bangladesh’Organization of ‘the International Forum on Tornado DRR for Bangladesh’

The International Forum on Tornado Disaster Risk Reduction forBangladesh- to cope with neglected Disasters’ was held inBangladesh from 13th to14th December. SEEDS Asia participated thisforum, and the urgent need to raise awareness at local, national, andinternational levels were agreed among the participants.

International Rehabilitation: Lessons learned from Java Earthquake Rehabilitation Implementation

SEEDS Asia participated in the international rehabilitation workshop which was organized byAsian Disaster Reduction Center, JICA Hyogo, and International recovery platform on 17th

December in Kobe. SEEDS Asia introduced the lessons learned from school disaster educationprogram carried out in Bantul, Yogyakarta. Lessons such as importance of taking into accountthe appropriate needs from local government, were shared among the participants.

www.seedsasia.org12

Activities in 2009Programs on knowledge dissemination

SEEDS Asia

Meeting of the Asia Regional Task Force on Urban Risk Reduction（RTF-URR）

SEEDS Asia participated in the 6th meeting of RTF-URR held on 14th

January 2010 in Kobe as a member, and members updated theirinitiatives. SEEDS Asia made a presentation on projects in Myanmar,Indonesia and Vietnam in this meetingIndonesia and Vietnam in this meeting.

ISDR-NGO Dialogue

A dialog e bet een UN/ISDR and Japanese NGOs as held on 19thA dialogue between UN/ISDR and Japanese NGOs was held on 19th

January at the office of Japan Platform, Tokyo, on the occasion of a visitof Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom, UN Assistant Secretary-General forDisaster Risk Reduction and the Secretary General’s SpecialRepresentative for the Implementation of the Hyogo Framework forAction. SEEDS Asia made a presentation on DRR activities inIndonesia and Myanmar.

Photo: Japan platform

Disaster Risk Reduction event for children

SEEDS Asia conducted a workshop in the children’s event ‘Kaeru-Dai--Caravan: Frog caravan for disaster risk reduction’ carried out byCaravan: Frog caravan for disaster risk reduction carried out by‘plus- arts’. Children joined the event to exchange their toys in ourDRR program, They learned various aspects of DRR, that furniture canbecome a ’weapon’ during an earthquake.

www.seedsasia.org 13

SEEDS Asia Board Members

Board ChairmanRajib Shaw, Associate Professor, Kyoto University

Board Vice ChairmanManu Gupta, Managing Director, SEEDS IndiaManu Gupta, Managing Director, SEEDS India

Board MemberYuko Nakagawa, Chief Operating Officer, SEEDS AsiaAnshu Sharma, Board Member, SEEDS IndiaMiki Yoshizumi, Assistant Professor, Kyoto University

ControllerControllerMichiko Nagai

SEEDS Asia Secretariat

2-11-21-401 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku,Kobe, Japan 658-0072Tel : +81-78-766-9412Fax: +81-78-766-9413

E il @ d iEmail: rep@seedsasia.orgWebsite: http://www.seedsasia.org

16