Sendai & Beyond: Education, Relationality & Disaster

The United Nations (UN) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) seeks to reduce risk from disaster and prevent new disaster risk through the implementation of integrated and inclusive economic, structural, legal, social, health, cultural, educational, environmental, technological, political and institutional measures to strengthen resilience. The Framework was agreed upon on 18 March 2015 by 187 UN member states in the 3rd World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. The Framework contributes to the wider Agenda 2030 that embraces sustainable development, climate change, humanitarianism, development finance, and many others. With the Framework set to expire in five years we need to examine what will happen afterwards.

The purpose of this panel event was to launch a Special Issue of the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science called “The Sendai Framework Celebrates Its 10th Birthday” in partnership with UCL and to together to discuss ideas for a strengthened future role of education in disaster resilience across international, local and community perspectives.

The Special Issue includes a contribution by Belinda Davis and Professor Alan Reid from Monash's School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education, that offers a policy analysis aimed at identifying new insights for how the Sendai Framework could be reframed in the context of relational understandings and ethical practices for disaster resilience.

Their article entitled: Relational Symmetries of Disaster Resilience Explored Through the Sendai Framework’s Guiding Principles, offers fresh insights for informing a revised framing of the Framework’s 13 Guiding Principles. These include practical examples for how to transgress structuralist boundaries for enhanced institutional co-ordination, integrate relational affect to achieve more ethical decision-making, and generate cohesive practices across jurisdictional boundaries.

The paper’s themes and other matters were addressed in the panel’s presentations, as follows:

Panel Event Chair: Professor Ruth Jeanes, Interim Dean for the Faculty of Education and Head of the School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education at Monash University

Presentation 1: Keynote Speaker, Associate Professor Jonathan Abrahams, Director of the Monash University Disaster Resilience Initiative (MUDRI)
Title of Presentation: An overview of the Sendai Framework (for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030)

Presentation 2: Professor Shinichi Egawa, School of Public Health at Tohoku University in Sendai Japan and member of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS)
Title of Presentation: Sendai and Beyond: Necessity of Education and Research

Presentation 3: Professor Alan Reid, School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education at Monash University and visiting professor at UCL's Institute of Education
Title of Presentation: Education we Need for a World we Don't Want?

Presentation 4: Belinda Davis, PhD Researcher, Faculty of Education at Monash University and a Natural Hazards Research Australia Scholar
Title of Presentation: The Sendai Framework, Relationality and the Role of Education in Disaster: Towards Transformative Approaches

Presentation 5: Professor Briony Rogers, Monash Sustainable Development Institute and CEO of Fire to Flourish
Title of Presentation: Fire to Flourish Youth Engagement

Closing Remarks: Professor Ilan Kelman, Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London, UK
Launch of the Special Issue of the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science on “The Sendai Framework Celebrates Its 10th Birthday.” Where to From Here?