Yasusuke Tsukagoshi
Special Representative, Japan, World Bank Group

Mr. Yasusuke Tsukagoshi became Special Representative, Japan on August 1, 2013. The Special Representative leads the institutional relationship with the Japanese Government, partners, and stakeholders; oversees the World Bank Tokyo Office; and has responsibility for coordinating and managing outreach and communications programs in Japan. Mr. Tsukagoshi, a Japanese national, has had a long career in Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MOF). Most recently, he served as Director General of Tokyo Customs following senior positions in the Ministry’s Customs and Tariff Bureau. Prior to the Customs’ positions, he had 17 years of experience in international finance and development. From 2008 to 2011 Mr. Tsukagoshi was Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank, representing Croatia, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, and from 1988 to 1991 he served as Executive Director at the African Development Bank, representing Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.

Francis Ghesquiere
Head of Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank

Mr. Francis Ghesquiere is the Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), a global partnership hosted by the World Bank with programs in more than 70 countries. Mr. Ghesquiere has extensive experience on policies and instruments to mainstream disaster risk management in development strategies and programs. He has participated in numerous post disaster operations and spent more than ten years building the World Bank disaster risk management practice in Latin America and the Caribbean and in South Asia. He is known for his leadership on a number of flagship initiatives, including the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), the Central America Probabilistic Risk Modeling Initiative, and the Understanding Risk Forum (UR). He was also key in the design of new policy instruments to help accelerate World Bank response to disasters, including the policy on emergency operations and innovative contingent financing instruments such as the CAT-DDO and Contingency Components. Mr. Ghesquiere holds a Master Degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and an Engineering Degree from the University of Louvain. He also studied Finance and Economics at New York University, ESADE in Barcelona and HEC in Paris.

Kunihiro Yamauchi
Director General, Global Environment Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Mr. Kunihiro Yamauchi joined Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1986. He has been engaged in administration of development projects in various fields including infrastructure and environmental management. He served as Environmental Specialist at the Asian Development Bank from 1998 to 2001 and Resident Representative of JICA Ghana Office from 2007 to 2011. Since April 2015 at the current position, he has been responsible for JICA’s activities on environmental conservation and management; water and sanitation; and disaster risk reduction. Mr. Yamauchi holds a bachelor's degree in biology (BS) and a Mater's in environmental sciences (MA) at the University of Tsukuba, and a Master's in geography and environmental studies (MA) at the University of Toronto.

Hiroyuki Yokoi
Deputy Director, South Asia Division 4, South Asia Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Mr. Hiroyuki Yokoi joined Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2005. He has worked for infrastructure planning and development projects, and emergency responses at the concerned departments such as the secretariat of Japan Disaster Relief Team, Economic Infrastructure Department and Cambodia office. Since April 2014, he has engaged with the Bangladesh and Nepal operations mainly in transportation and disaster risk reduction. He has directed the formulation of the Urban Building Safety Project in Bangladesh and the Emergency Housing Reconstruction Project in Nepal in cooperation with the World Bank.

Marc Forni
Regional Coordinator, South Asia Disaster Risk Management, World Bank

Mr. Marc Forni joined the World Bank in 2003, working for four years in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region to help build the disaster risk management practice. He returned to the World Bank in 2011, after a period as an investment banker, to support the expansion of the disaster risk management practice in South Asia, where he leads the World Bank's investments in resilience in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as housing reconstruction in Nepal following the 2015 earthquake.

James Newman
Disaster Risk Management Specialist, Disaster Risk Management Hub, Tokyo, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank

Since joining the World Bank in 2013, Mr. James Newman has led Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)’s overall work planning, and served as focal point for urban resilience and regional portfolios in South Asia and East Asia Pacific. He contributed to the development of the World Bank’s CityStrength Diagnostic and Medellin Collaboration on Urban Resilience. He has supported World Bank projects and technical assistance, including post-disaster assessments, in India, Nepal, South Africa, and Vietnam. Prior to GFDRR, he worked for the City of Baltimore, contributing to the city’s 10-Year Financial Plan, risk management, CitiStat performance management, and open data, and served as acting deputy procurement agent. He has also covered Latin American and Caribbean finance and insurance for a Chilean market intelligence firm. Studying economics and public policy, Mr. Newman has a Master’s from Georgetown and Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile and undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis. As an adjunct professor, he has taught urban management, public policy, and statistics at University of Baltimore’s Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) program.

(Listed in the order of presentation)

❖ Overview

The 17^th DRM seminar presented views from JICA and the World Bank on what is needed to make progress on disaster resilience and how collaboration is critical towards that task. The seminar highlighted on-the-ground collaboration in South Asia, showing how coordinated programs from the two entities are advancing the efforts of public and private sectors for urban resilience in Bangladesh and supporting progress for the earthquake recovery process in Nepal.

The JICA and World Bank teams recommended a partnership model built on carefully coordinating policy messages, ensuring technical complementarity of support, and recognizing opportunities to bring together sufficient resources for substantive impact.

TRENDS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND PARTNERSHIP

Francis Ghesquiere, Head of GFDRR, World Bank, noted the continued growth trends of disaster risk, with urbanization, population growth, environmental degradation, and climate change as key factors. In addition to their direct support to developing countries, JICA and other development partners are providing new insights to policymakers on the importance of disaster resilience. Recent World Bank reports “Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters” and the “Triple Dividend of Resilience” are deepening our understanding of the policy choices and benefits underlying disaster resilience. This kind of analytical work also points the way forward, with resilient infrastructure, urban resilience, adaptive social protection, and inclusive community resilience emerging as key areas for development collaboration.

JICA is helping developing countries make progress on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and tackling disaster risk has proven a priority area of Japan’s collaboration with the World Bank, Kunihiro Yamauchi, Director General, Global Environment Department, JICA, pointed out. In fact, over the last 20 years, Japan and the World Bank have been two of the most important supporters of disaster resilience. Japan’s expertise in managing and reducing disaster risk, including well-tailored laws and regulations, strong systems of observation and warning, resiliently designed and operated infrastructure, and a culture of preparedness, underlies its support to developing countries, as they work to understand and implement innovative solutions.

JICA – World Bank Partnership in South Asia

Like Japan, South Asia faces a wide variety of natural hazards, particularly from earthquakes and storms. Unlike Japan, the region’s disaster risks appear to be holding back the growth of its productive capital stock, according to Mr. Yamauchi, citing research from UNSIDR’s Global Assessment Report 2015. Coordinated investments in disaster resilience in South Asia could help change the dynamics of this potential trap, and the World Bank and JICA’s support could prove critical.

Joint programs in Nepal and Bangladesh were discussed to show how the collaboration between JICA and the World Bank is helping the region of South Asia in disaster resilience.  In the recent case of April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the World Bank and JICA responded quickly in helping formulate the Housing Reconstruction Program. Under this program, beneficiaries are financially and technically assisted to build new disaster resilient houses, meeting sufficient building standards. In Bangladesh, JICA and the World Bank are supporting the country’s key investment in urban resilience, including structural support and emergency response.

“Our goal is to use the Bangladesh program as a model to take up more projects collaboratively in order to address enormous disaster risks and hazards in developing countries,” Hiroyuki Yokoi, Deputy Director, South Asia Division 4, South Asia Department, JICA

Since 2014, JICA and the World Bank have held three high-level dialogues to deepen and operationalize their partnership, with disaster resilience proving an area of mutual strength and growing opportunity. Practitioners in both institutions plan to work together to make this model of collaboration – focusing on leadership, technical complementarity, and co-financing opportunities - feasible in other regions.